[The Wounds of Hong Kong - 1] Another scar for no good reason: 19-year old student
Translated by Guardians of Hong Kong
Author: Tsoi Wei-man
Yan (alias), 19-year old student
At around 6 pm on 2 Nov 2019, riot police shot multiple rounds of tear gas into Percival Street, Causeway Bay. Its canisters fell onto the street, melting and sinking into the asphalt. A hand-thrown canister dropped between first aider Yan's backpack and skin. He reflexively reached behind him to remove it and sustained severe burn injuries to his back and left hand as a result. After a 4-hour surgical debridement, a skin graft from his thigh was transferred onto his back. He had patches all over his body.
Just before the incident, Yan was on standby at a tram station. Other first aiders and journalists were nearby. He did not wear a gas mask because he was not expecting the police to suddenly launch an offensive and turn the tram line into an open-air gas chamber. Only after the smoke had dissipated somewhat did someone notice him on the ground. The flame kept burning his back. "It was a terrifying pain. I felt [the canister] continually spraying on my back." A third of his back was burnt like layers of charred bark peeling off of a tree.
After the surgery, Yan required morphine injections for his pain. The daily wound dressings were his worst nightmare. He had to take 5 to 6 painkillers just to get through it. "Lying down or getting up both hurt. It hurt so much that I curled myself up into a ball." Even more unbearable was the fact that he could not take a shower for ten full days. "I literally wanted to die." If the psychological torment of wound dressings occupied the area of his back, the trauma of not bathing consumed his whole body. A little less than a month later, he refused any further dressings. During the photoshoot, Yan took off his shirt. Harris, a fellow first aider, noticed his defiantly exposed wounds, "Hey man, you still have to cover it up. The stitches are still there." "I can't shower if they're covered," [Yan responded.] "Can't you shower first and then get the wounds dressed?" "I can't get up that early." The nearest clinic only provided wound care in the morning.
Scars are badges of honour. Yan did not care how his wounds healed, "The most important is that it's cool." "Whatever, man." Harris is a registered nurse. They met in a Telegram group [last] August and formed a team with two others, working on the frontlines. Yan is the youngest member. At the time of the incident, Harris was flushing the eyes of another [injured] person. He picked up Yan's helmet and cell phone, worried that his mate was being arrested. One second later, he found him lying on the ground. Feeling an immense sense of guilt, Harris took to spending more time caring for Yan. "He recently had a falling out with his family. The few of us have taken up the role of his guardians."
Harris even picked up the habits of a nagging mother, "You blasted kid playing video games again? Didn't you say you were going to study?" But then, his heart would soften, "Well, as long as he's safe and sound, it's okay." Yan comes from a single-parent household. His mother is his only family but the two hold polar opposite values. "I can help others and will do so even without reward. She's very selfish. Even if she doesn't need something, she'd rather throw it in the trash than give it to others."
Their bond only frayed further since the Anti-Extradition Movement began. "She's so deep blue [pro-establishment] that light won't even shine through." On the 9 June protest when 1 million people showed up, Yan volunteered at a first aid station for St John Ambulance. Later, when even legal protests ended in bloodshed, St John Ambulance stopped sending personnel onto the field. He concealed from his mother that he continued showing up on the frontlines. "It wasn't until the mishap that she realised I don't listen to her."
She paid him no visits and offered no comfort. All she did was curse him. "She said I deserved it. The pro-establishment camp produced fake images claiming that I was burned by a Molotov cocktail. Even when the City U Student Union Editorial Board had footage of the whole incident, she still chose to believe the fake news." Since then, the door to his home was shut. "It's freeing. I'm less stressed."
Did he consider mending ties? "That will have to wait until she accepts my values. She needs to understand that what I did was not wrong." When he was 3, Yan moved to Hong Kong from mainland China. Despite all the communist opinions at home, he remained immune. "Hong Kong's education is quite good. You get to know the real history and gradually develop your own thoughts."
After his discharge from the hospital, Yan moved into a university dorm. He is a first-year student of the Counselling and Psychology Programme at Hong Kong Shue Yan University. He currently lives off of student loans [FASP] and will be in debt once he graduates. "I'll worry about it when I start working." He originally wanted to be a police officer and thought that having first aid certification would help his enrollment. Now, he definitely would not work on the side of evil. "Fine, I'll be a paramedic."
He had considered pursuing a civil claim or lodging a complaint against the police. "I don't believe it will be effective. You can't even obtain the identity of the officer who blew out a [journalist's] eye. The burns on my back are a trivial matter." Harris chided back, "It's a permanent injury." "It doesn't hurt much anymore. It's just itchy and my skin feels stretched. It's just another scar for no good reason."
Source: Stand News