Chinese woman falls into a coma after being attacked by her husband and wakes up with permanent blindness

Lao Chunxue, a 28-year-old woman from Inner Mongolia in China, met her husband Xie in 2022 through a relative. Although Xie's gambling obsession often led to arguments, Lao accepted his marriage proposal because of his caring nature. The couple moved to Henan Province After their marriage they looked for work, but both had difficulty finding employment.
As Xie's gambling addiction worsened, he demanded money from Lao to fund his addiction, according to the South China Morning Post. When Lao told her on March 19, 2023, that she had no money left, Xie became angry and physically attacked her. “He hit me and then with a frying pan,” Lao said.
Shockingly, during the attack, Xie's mother, who was connected via video call, encouraged his violent behavior, saying, “If she doesn't give you money, beat her to death.” The attack only ended when Lao's cousin intervened and found Xie strangling his wife with pajama pants.
Lao was immediately taken to the hospital, where she spent three months in a coma in the intensive care unit. When she woke up, she found that she had permanently lost her sight due to optic nerve atrophy caused by intracranial bleeding. She also suffered other serious injuries that left her unable to care for herself. Her parents, who rushed to her from Inner Mongolia, expressed their grief, saying, “Seeing our daughter like this was like a knife cutting into our hearts.”
Although Lao's family spent hundreds of thousands of yuan on medical treatment and even took out a mortgage on their house, they learned that the damage to Lao's optic nerves was irreversible.
When Lao tried to reclaim her assets to fund her rehabilitation, she discovered that Xie had secretly transferred her car to his mother's name. Xie's wealthy family only contributed 36,000 yuan (US$5,000) toward her medical expenses after police intervened. Lao's mother believes this was an attempt to reduce his sentence.
On August 30, the Zhongyuan District People's Court in Zhengzhou sentenced Xie to 11 years in prison for premeditated murder and ordered him to pay Lao 657,000 yuan (US$93,000) in compensation.
Lao's parents are currently appealing the verdict and are demanding a life sentence for Xie.
The case has sparked widespread outrage online, with many people condemning Xie's actions and questioning the leniency of his sentence. Some have stressed the importance of couples taking time to really get to know each other before getting married, while others have stressed that such acts of violence should not be seen as mere “domestic violence” but treated as serious crimes.