Zhu Ling (1973)

Thallium Poisoning of Zhu Ling
Location	Tsinghua University, Beijing
Date	? – April 1995
Victim	Zhu Ling

Zhu Ling (Chinese: 朱令; pinyin: Zhū Lìng, born 1973) ^photo is best known as the victim of an unsolved 1995 thallium poisoning case in Beijing, China. Her symptoms were posted to the Internet via a Usenet newsgroup by her friend from Peking University, Bei Zhicheng and were subsequently proven to be caused by thallium poisoning. Her case was then reviewed by physicians in many different countries who examined her symptoms and made suggestions as to diagnoses and treatment. This effort was recognized as the first large scale tele-medicine trial. Her life was ultimately saved, but she suffered serious neurological damage and permanent physical impairment.

This case drew great attention in the Chinese media, because the victim and the suspect were living in the same dormitory in the most prestigious university of China, and the case was never solved. Internet discussion of the crime has continued since then and became a hot topic on major online Chinese communities very frequently as a high-profile cold case.

In 1994, Zhu Ling was a sophomore in Class Wuhua2 (Class 2 majored in Physical Chemistry) at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Classmates described her as attractive, intelligent, and talented, with an interest in music. She began to show strange and debilitating symptoms at the end of 1994, when she reported experiencing acute stomach pain, along with extensive hair loss. Following her hospitalization at TongRen Hospital, her condition gradually improved and she was allowed to return to school. The following March, however, her old symptoms returned worse than before, this time accompanied by pain in her legs, loss of muscular eye control, and partial facial paralysis. Unable to breathe on her own, she was placed on a respirator.

One physician at Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH), Dr. Li Shun-wei, reported having diagnosed a similar poisoning case in the 1960s and strongly suspected that Zhu Ling's symptoms were caused by thallium poisoning. However, Zhu Ling denied that she had had any contact with thallium in class, a claim which was confirmed by her university's chemistry department. As a result, her doctors ruled out thallium poisoning as a potential cause. Instead, she was diagnosed with and treated for Guillain–Barré syndrome. Her condition deteriorated rapidly.

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