The tragedy that struck, due to problems in long-term care provisions, from the Front Page Sections, translated…
The 74-Year-Old Woman Who Took Care of Her Husband of the Same Age, with the Progressive Degenerative Illnesses, She’d Become Extremely Tired, Yesterday, She’d, Beaten Her Husband to Death with a Hammer, then, Turn Herself in, the Police Sent Her to the Shihlin D.A.’s Office on Murder Charges, the D.A. Asked Her to Continue to Remain in Custody.
The woman, Chen had been married to her husband, Wu for forty-five years, Wu had been overcome with illness a lot, and got hospitalized, he didn’t come home until yesterday. As she was preparing lunch yesterday, the thought of “I may need to look after him for over a decade after this…don’t know how long it’ll last…”, she’d felt depressed, and, picked up a hammer, and, started hitting her husband on the head, and murdered him.
After the murder, she’d, realized what she’d done, immediately called the super of her building, “I’d killed my family, call the police for me…”, as the paramedics arrived, they’d moved Wu to the living room, they’d tried to use the defibrillator to bring him back, but it didn’t work, they’d rushed him to the hospital, but he’d still died.
The police examined, that there were, fifteen injuries on the victim’s head, two of which landed on his forehead, and there were, fractures on the man’s head for it. The police deducted, that Chen brought the hammer in from the living room, she’d used the sharpened side and smashed him, and, Wu fought, causing Chen to have injuries on her face, but she’d continued hitting him until the hammer separated from the handle.
The police investigated, that back when Wu was younger, he’d sold the raincoats, Chen was a housewife, they have a daughter and a son, they were living well off; they live in the housing projects, but owned multiple properties that they’d rented in Taipei, they can live off easy into the elderly years with the rents coming in. On the weekends, the grandchildren will visit the two elders, they were very low key.
Wu was ill, started in his forties, he’d started having the progressive illnesses, and needed someone to accompany him to his dialysis by the week; Chen had been by his side, and felt strained by the pressures, in the past five years, she’d started taking the medication for her high blood pressure. As the daughter heard the news she’d rushed home, seeing her mother being arrested, she’d cried to the officers that she “didn’t know mom was under so much stress.”
And, unless you’re the primary caretaker of someone who’d lost her/him ability to live on her/his own, you will NEVER understand how difficult it is, to take care of the individual, and, even IF the family had hired a nurse to help, it still doesn’t take away from the stress that his wife would’ve felt from looking after her ill husband long term.