Medical evacuation needs to happen soon, US and German specialists say after meeting Nobel laureate
Ailing Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo wants to go to either Germany or the United States for treatment and can be moved safely but it needs to happen soon, two foreign doctors who visited him said on Sunday.
Liu, 61, was jailed for 11 years in 2009 for “inciting subversion of state power” after he helped write a petition known as “Charter 08” calling for sweeping political reforms.
He was recently moved from jail to a hospital in the city of Shenyang, Liaoning province, to be treated for late-stage liver cancer.
On Saturday, two doctors from the US and Germany visited him to assess his condition and consult on his treatment, after being invited by the hospital.
Foreign doctors advise more MRI scans, possible radiation therapy for Liu Xiaobo
“Liu Xiaobo and his family have requested that the remainder of his care be provided in Germany or the United States, ” Joseph Herman of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre, and Markus Büchler of the University of Heidelberg said in a joint statement.
While a degree of risk always exists in the movement of any patient, both physicians believe Mr Liu can be safely transported with appropriate medical evacuation care and support.
