Hong Kong student left injured after Shenzhen acupuncture from suspected fake doctor

‘I thought I would die that night,’ says 26-year-old, who still needs a walking stick after being persuaded to undergo bloodletting at a clinic he’d found with five-star reviews on Chinese search engine Baidu

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Hong Kong student Victor still requires a walking stick following his Shenzhen ordeal with a suspected fake doctor. Photo: James Wendlinger

Published: 6:45am, 29 May 2017Updated: 5:37pm, 29 May 2017

Victor was just like so many other young Hongkongers who enjoy making a quick and easy trip across the border to Shenzhen to take advantage of its cheap food, shopping and massages. He had even planned to document his last trip as the first post on a travel blog he was planning to set up.

The 26-year-old university student went by train, but returned to Hong Kong in an ambulance, scared for his life.

Victor (who requested anonymity) believes he fell victim to a wong luk yee saang – literally a “yellow and green doctor”, which means either a fake doctor or one with questionable abilities. He believes the doctor tricked him into agreeing to undergo an acupuncture-related bloodletting treatment that left him with a crushing pain in his head and an inability to stand up without wanting to vomit – and caused him to pass out at the Lo Wu border crossing a few days later.

There are more than 360 acupuncture points in the body and some can be very dangerous if treatment is performed on them by a non-professional. Photo: Shutterstock

“At night after the treatment, I felt so abnormal. When I tried to sit upright, I felt so much pain in my head, like something was crushing it,” Victor says.

“Gradually, I lost some of my hearing and it felt like I was wearing ear plugs. I felt like I had some pressure on my heart and wanted to faint, and my whole body had no strength.”

A chronic sciatica sufferer, Victor decided to look on Chinese search engine Baidu for a massage clinic in Shenzhen to help relieve his pain during the trip. He found one with three five-star reviews, where the doctor had a medical certificate.