With the release of the results of the University Entrance Examination, each year uncovers stories of some remarkable achievement in the face of adversity. For 2023, we have in our neck of the woods perhaps the most extraordinary of all.
Dong Yichao is a 21-year old middle-school senior in Qidong City of Nantong in Jiangsu. Suffering from anterior spinal artery syndrome, he can only write with two fingers.
But, wheelchair bound and struggling with the disease for 9 years, Dong insisted on completing junior-high school and his studies with amazing perseverance.
On 24 June, his efforts were rewarded as the results of the 2023 University Entrance Examination in Jiangsu were released. Dong had scored 632, enough for a place in many a university. In advance of seeing the results, Dong’s mother, Gu Weihua, was more excited than her son at that moment, after 6 years of dependent study.
For Gu had been taking her son to and from school regardless of the weather, while Dong also needs to complete daily activities such as dressing and eating with her help. With his evening study session ending at 22:30, Dong as a result often got to bed well after midnight.
But the days were still not over for Gu. Her son also suffers from insomnia as a side effect of his condition. Gu must turn him over in the middle of night and offer some comforting words.
Faced with such unimaginable pressure, in Gu’s eyes, while such jobs for many might be unbearable, for her they were as easy and ordinary as trivial daily matters, The Paper has reported.
She’s done all this pretty much since 28 December, 2014, the day her son suddenly felt weak in his limbs and fell to the ground. Sent to a hospital in Shanghai, he was diagnosed with anterior spinal artery syndrome and was unable to move below the neck. An extremely rare and incurable condition, the doctors asserted that the boy would spend the rest of his life in a hospital bed.
His parents, unwilling to give up, transferred their son to another hospital. After more than 2 months of intensive treatment, Yichao’s body gradually began to move, and his feet responded a little.
“My brain was clear, and I always thought about going back to school”, Dong recalled.
With this strong desire in his mind, after 3 years of absence from school, he miraculously returned to class.
In order to make it easier on his mother, Qidong Middle School arranged for Gu to help with the School’s cleaning, so that she could take care of her son at any time and earn some living expenses. The School also provided a dormitory for the two, while Dong’s classes always took place on the first floor, equipped with a special table and an accompanying wheelchair, allowing him to live a normal high-school life.
“Holding two books was very difficult; I hardly had the energy to hold them for very long”, said Dong.
Despite this, Xu Jing, Dong’s class teacher, told reporters that he would always have a positive and sunny expression on his face, saying, “He never said anything negative and slack, and he never showed an expression of despair”.
When it came time for the recent University Entrance Exam, the test centre laid on free board and lodging, as well as tailor-made test tables. Even police officers came in to bring Dong to and from the centre.
Qidong Middle School is soon to stage a university-consultation meeting. Dong is looking forward to face-to-face exchanges with some college-admissions officers. And what will be his major in university? “Psychology or pedagogy, perhaps”, said Dong.
With his black-rimmed glasses, a small crew cut, and a simple and honest smile, Dong is humorous, talkative and now, undefeated.
