Zou Hongyan was told to give up on her son because he was born with cerebral palsy. The news was hard to take in, but she was more shocked when her husband agreed to give up on their child. She divorced him and did everything she could to help her son with his illness.
Zou Hongyan is a mother who was willing to do anything for her child to live a fulfilling life. When her son was born at the Jingzhou District Hospital in China’s Hubei Province in July 1988, she was told to give up on him. The doctor told her there was no use in trying to rescue her baby because he was most likely to develop a mental disability.
Zou Hongyan'ın 1988 yılında "serebral palsili", yani beyin felçli doğdu. Annesi sayesinde hayata tutunmayı başaran Ding, 2011 yılında Pekin Üniversitesi'nden mezun oldu. Hemen ardından aynı üniversitede Hukuk Master'ı yaptı. 2 yıl çalıştıktan sonra ise, Harvard'ı kazandı. pic.twitter.com/0eskLStdUo
— GZT Hayat Haber (@gztHayat) April 17, 2018
The doctor told the new mother, “He will become mentally disabled or paralyzed. I suggest you give up.” The news was an understandable tough pill to swallow for Hongyan, but even more surprising to her was her husband agreeing with the doctor.
Zou’s son Ding Zheng was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth, but the doctor or her husband could not convince her to give up on her son. She was determined to do everything she could to help Ding with his illness.The mother divorced her husband after they could not agree on raising their son and started a long rehabilitation journey for her son’s health.
Zou Hongyan Overcame Her Biggest Fear
Zou was most scared of her son’s brain development throughout this long journey. She hoped Ding would not have mental disabilities, so from a young age, she had him undergo treatment at the Hubei Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.When her son was 100 days old, he had an intelligence test done on him. The results finally came out, and Zou was relieved when the doctor told her her son’s intelligence level was normal. From there, the mother helped her son overcome some physical difficulties.
Ding had damaged motor neurons in the cerebellum, which affected his physical mobility. He found himself struggling in sports, but despite only learning how to hold things at one, stand at two, and walk at three years old, Zou did not allow her son to give up.One thing she did not compromise on was Ding learning how to eat with chopsticks. The mother said eating with chopsticks was a part of Chinese culture, and if Ding did not know how, then it would open him up to questions about his illness.
Zou never wanted her son to grow up to be ashamed of his illness, so to teach him resilience and help him overcome some of the toughest challenges was the tough love he needed to have a better life.
Although the mother was proud of her son’s progress, the treatments he needed cost a lot and were not covered by insurance, so Ding and his mother had to downsize their lives and lived in a room less than 20 square meters big.In addition to the small space, they also had to deal with leaks every time it rained. Zou would also work a part-time job and a full-time teaching job. She sold insurance for five years to help keep up with her son’s treatments.
Xiao Daiqi, a doctor who used to work at the Hubei Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, praised Ding’s mother for her attentiveness to her son’s illness and for getting him the treatment he needed from an early age. “Early and continuous treatment for cerebral palsy patients is crucial,” emphasized Daiqi.
Zou Hongyan and Her Son Remain Inseparable
Ding is now grown up and remembers some of his mother’s sacrifices. He recalled when it was snowing heavily, and Zou carried him on his bike to the hospital. The journey was not easy because both the son and mother fell, and they were covered in mud by the time they got to the hospital.But not even bad weather would make Hongyan break a promise she made to her son on the day he was born. Things were not easy for the mother and son, but one moment that made it all worth it was when Ding walked for the first time and called her “mommy.”
The tough love and grit Zou instilled in Ding paid off. He graduated from Peking University with a qualification in Environmental Science and Engineering.
He then continued to study law, and in March 2016, Ding was accepted to the Law School of Harvard University. Ding did not think he would make it into the prestigious university, but with the support of his mother, it all became possible.