A woman from China’s Henan province helped her husband emerge from a nearly five-year deep coma by biting his toes every day to stimulate his nerve endings, as reported by the South China Morning Post.
According to the newspaper, the tragedy struck the family of former kindergarten teacher Song Mei and construction worker Zhao Jinqian in October 2019. The man fell from a height of six meters while rescuing a three-year-old child who was stuck on a warehouse roof.
Zhao shielded the boy with his own body, ensuring the child was unharmed, but the rescuer himself suffered severe brain injuries and multiple fractures. Doctors assessed his chances of waking up as minimal.
It is reported that to cover the medical expenses, Song Mei quit her job and began selling paintings online. Following doctors’ advice, she massaged her husband’s limbs daily. One day, she accidentally bit his toe and noticed a faint response.
From then on, she regularly used this method, placing a clean bag over the patient’s foot and biting his toes to stimulate the nerves. By 2024, Zhao began opening his eyes and reacting to external stimuli.
On June 30, while in the hospital room, the man was able to whisper words of gratitude for the first time in five years, telling his wife that he “loves her.”
Currently, the man’s condition is gradually improving: he can understand speech, raise his hand on command, and stand briefly with assistance. During writing exercises, the first word he managed to write was his wife’s name.
“Everyone says the road ahead is hard, but husband and wife are meant to face hardships together. I don’t know of any better cure, but I am ready to keep going through it all for these long years,” the woman wrote on social media during her husband’s rehabilitation period.
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