Chinese man suffers stroke, wife skims US$153,000 from account, leaving him with only US$6

In granting joint guardianship, judge states the essence lies not in titles, but in who can genuinely care for the incapacitated loved one

by Zoey Zhang

A 61-year-old man in eastern China suffered a stroke on his wedding day, and his condition subsequently deteriorated, leaving him paralysed.

His wife siphoned 1.1 million yuan (US$153,000) from his account, leaving him with a mere 42 yuan (US$6).

According to the mainland media outlet News Morning Post, Wang, hailing from Shanghai, divorced over 20 years ago and raised his daughter independently.

In 2016, he married Ren Fang, a woman 16 years his junior. The details of their initial meeting remain undisclosed.

Relatives noted that older men living alone in Shanghai are highly sought after as marriage partners.

“My uncle had a solid pension, property, and relocation benefits,” remarked Wang’s nephew.

Though Wang, above, was once healthy, he suffered a stroke on his wedding day, and his condition continued to decline, resulting in multiple strokes over the years. Photo: Handout

Wang’s mother had opposed his marriage, expressing concerns that the significant age gap might mean Ren had ulterior motives.

On the day of his wedding, Wang collapsed from a stroke and was promptly taken to the hospital.

Though he was once healthy, his condition continued to decline, resulting in multiple strokes over the years.

By 2019, he was paralysed on his left side, unable to speak, and bedridden, relying solely on his right hand to gesture for communication.

His family placed him in a nursing home, where his wife and daughter shared caregiving responsibilities.

In 2020, after Wang’s previous home was demolished, he and his daughter received a new flat along with more than 2 million yuan (US$280,000) in compensation.

Shortly thereafter, Ren had Wang declared legally incompetent and positioned herself as his sole guardian.

Wang’s family placed him in a nursing home, where his wife and daughter shared the responsibilities of caregiving. Photo: Handout

She also filed a lawsuit against her stepdaughter to claim her share of the property compensation, but the court ruled that Wang would receive 1.1 million yuan while the remainder would go to his daughter.

Wang’s daughter alleged that her father’s funds were transferred into an account controlled by Ren.

Ren then withdrew substantial amounts over two years, with withdrawals sometimes reaching 50,000 yuan in a single day. By August last year, only 42 yuan remained.

Recently, Wang’s daughter filed a lawsuit to alter the guardianship arrangement.

Ren countered that the money had been used for nursing home bills and health supplements, claiming she withdrew cash to deposit it in a bank in her hometown for better interest rates.

However, the daughter pointed out that Wang’s 6,000-yuan monthly pension already covered all his expenses.

The court ruled in favour of the daughter, deciding that both she and Ren must serve as co-guardians, with all financial decisions requiring their joint signatures.

The court ruled in favour of the daughter, deciding that both the daughter and stepmother must serve as co-guardians, with all financial decisions requiring their joint signatures. Photo: Shutterstock

A later attempt by Ren to divide the resettlement flat was also denied.

The judge remarked: “The essence of guardianship lies not in titles, but in who can genuinely care for an incapacitated loved one.”

This story has sparked intense discussion on mainland social media.

One online commenter stated: “Wang should never have remarried. In the end, he lost his money and ended up in a nursing home.”

Another noted: “In reality, children often become too occupied with work to care for the elderly, which leaves widowed seniors feeling even lonelier. When they seek companionship, they must exercise caution.”

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Chinese man suffers stroke, wife skims US$153,000 from account, leaving him with only US$6 

Scientists Diagnose The Youngest Case of Alzheimer's Ever Reported

By Carly Cassella

Neurologists at a memory clinic in China diagnosed a 19-year-old with what they believe to be Alzheimer's disease, making him the youngest person to be diagnosed with the condition in the world.

The male teenager began experiencing memory decline around age 17, and the cognitive losses only worsened over the years.

Imaging of the patient's brain showed shrinkage in the hippocampus, which is involved in memory, and his cerebrospinal fluid hinted at common markers of this most common form of dementia.

 Alzheimer's disease (AD) is often thought of as an old person's ailment, and yet early-onset cases, which include patients under the age of 65, account for up to 10 percent of all diagnoses.

Almost all patients under 30 years of age can have their Alzheimer's explained by pathological gene mutations, putting them into the category of familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD). The younger a person is when they receive a diagnosis, the more likely it is the result of a faulty gene they've inherited.

Yet researchers at the Capital Medical University in Beijing couldn't find any of the usual mutations responsible for the early onset of memory loss, nor any suspect genes when they performed a genome-wide search.

Before this diagnosis in China, the youngest patient with Alzheimer's was 21 years old. They carried the PSEN1 gene mutation, which causes abnormal proteins to build up in the brain, forming clumps of toxic plaques, a common feature of Alzheimer's.

Cases like this latest one in China pose something of a mystery. None of the 19-year-old's family had a history of Alzheimer's or dementia, making it hard to categorize as FAD, yet the teenager had no other diseases, infections, or head trauma that could explain his sudden cognitive decline either.

Two years before being referred to the memory clinic, the teenage patient began struggling to focus in class. Reading also became difficult and his short-term memory declined. Oftentimes, he couldn't remember events from the day before, and he was always misplacing his belongings.

Ultimately, the cognitive decline became so bad, the young man was unable to finish high school, although he could still live independently.

A year after being referred to the memory clinic, he showed losses in immediate recall, short-delay recall after three minutes, and long-delay recall after 30 minutes.

The patient's full-scale memory score was 82 percent lower than that of peers his own age, while his immediate memory score was 87 percent lower.

Long-term follow-up is needed to support the young man's diagnosis, but his medical team said the patient is "altering our understanding of the typical age of onset of AD."

"The patient had very early-onset AD with no clear pathogenic mutations," neurologist Jianping Jia and colleagues wrote in their study, "which suggests that its pathogenesis still needs to be explored."

The case study, published in February, just goes to show that Alzheimer's doesn't follow a single pathway, and is much more complex than we thought, emerging via numerous avenues with varying effects.

In a statement to the South China Morning Post, the neurologists who described the patient's case argued that future studies should focus on early-onset cases to further improve our understanding of memory loss.

"Exploring the mysteries of young people with Alzheimer's disease may become one of the most challenging scientific questions of the future," they predict.

The study was published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

An earlier version of this article was published in February 2023. 

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Scientists Diagnose The Youngest Case of Alzheimer's Ever Reported