Tencent China: Dying to Breathe

August 01, 2015 | QQ

Sim Chi Yin

Mi Shixiu cradled her husband's head as he struggled to breathe. Image by Sim Chi Yin. China, 2015.

Four months after surgery on both lungs, He Quangui, who has terminal silicosis from his years as a gold miner in small, illegal mines, and his wife, Mi Shixiu, were at home for the summer. Image by Sim Chi Yin. China, 2015.

Mi Shixiu carrying chopped firewood to her house shortly after dawn. Image by Sim Chi Yin. China, 2015.

Mi Shixiu helping her husband wash his hair. Image by Sim Chi Yin. China, 2015.

He Quangui, a former gold miner, is slowly dying of silicosis—an irreversible but preventable lung disease he contracted from years of working in small, unregulated mines in Henan Province in central China. Since he became ill 10 years ago, his wife, Mi Shixiu, 36, has had to take care of his every need. When he is too sickly to walk, she carries him, even up flights of stairs. Image by Sim Chi Yin. China, 2015.

Mi Shixiu preparing an injection for her husband. Image by Sim Chi Yin. China, 2015.

Mr. He sat on a stool while Mi Shixiu helped scrub him down. He once weighed 140 pounds, but is now barely 88 pounds. Image by Sim Chi Yin. China, 2015.

Mr. He warming himself in a shed behind the couple's house in the remote mountains of Shaanxi Province. Image by Sim Chi Yin. China, 2015.

He Quangui was wheeled on a stretcher as he arrived at a hospital several hours' drive from his remote village. The doctor who received him took one look at the chest X-rays he had brought with him and said, `"It's a miracle you made it here." Image by Sim Chi Yin. China, 2015.

Mr. He sobbing and struggling to breathe after collapsing on his way to the bathroom. His relatives tried to comfort him. Early the next morning, he tried to commit suicide. Image by Sim Chi Yin. China, 2015.

He Jingbo, 18, wept quietly in a shack in the backyard after seeing his father collapse twice that morning. His grandfather tugged at his arm, telling him to go have some lunch. The teenager refused to eat. Image by Sim Chi Yin. China, 2015.

During the Chinese New Year, Mr. He's father, He Decheng, 76, made traditional offerings and prayers from the family kitchen. Image by Sim Chi Yin. China, 2015.

Photographer and Pulitzer Center grantee Sim Chi Yin has spent the past four years documenting He Quangui's life as he struggled with silicosis.

When she started the project, she expected to tell the story of how silicosis effects a patient and his family. But as she explained in a Lens Blog feature for The New York Times, she witnessed instead the love between He Quangui and his wife that sustained him for so long. Silicosis, a lung disease associated with mining, is the most common occupational disease in China, a country that produces the most gold in the world.

When Tencent, a major Chinese web portal, recently published He's story and Chi Yin's images, it helped raise 100,000 rmb (about $16,000) for his medical care.

Sadly, He died on Aug. 1, 2015.

Chi Yin's piece describing her work with the He family can be found here, written in Chinese.