Chinese PTSD survivor finds healing through volunteering 15 years after devastating train crash

A young survivor of a catastrophic train collision 15 years ago has grown up to become a volunteer who gives hope to many inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients like her.Mengjun, 28, was diagnosed with IBD when she was graduating from senior secondary school. She said she was the “one unlucky person in 30,000” in China.She also has a more breathtaking identity: a survivor of the devastating 2011 Wenzhou train collision.On July 23, 2011, two high-speed trains collided on a railway line in Wenzhou, in eastern China’s Zhejiang province. The trains derailed, and four carriages fell off the viaduct. The accident caused 40 deaths and at least 192 injuries.Mengjun, 13 at the time, was in the second to last carriage of the front train. She was travelling from her hometown, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, to the train’s destination, Fuzhou, in southeastern Fujian province, to spend her summer there.On the 13th anniversary of the accident, she recalled grabbing the overhead luggage rack to survive as her carriage was rammed from behind.An image from July 24, 2011 captures the aftermath of the tragic high-speed train derailment near Wenzhou, Zhejiang province. The collision resulted in 40 deaths and over 192 people injured. Photo: AFPShe said she could remember every moment of that day: “I feel that the space around me was collapsing and sinking, swallowing everything into the ground.”She managed to free herself from the metal that jammed her and landed on top of the ruins. Her leg was bleeding, and she was in shock when rescued.She stayed in hospital for 17 days, but the psychological counsellors did not check on her because she looked “too calm.”But that day’s memory never stopped haunting Mengjun. She caught insomnia afterwards and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and tic disorder.Further ReadingShe still clearly remembered the thunderstorm that evening, the screams and injured bodies, and imagined if she should not have survived.She was sent to her family’s native home in Fujian because her parents believed she needed to be looked after, but she said her relatives were mean to her.Being diagnosed with IBD not only meant that becoming a civil servant – a dream job among many youngsters today for its steadiness – shut its door to her, but she also experienced pain and shame from the illness.In severe conditions, IBD patients cannot eat and need to live by a feeding tube. Mengjun’s weight fluctuated like a roller coaster, and she also found it embarrassing to explain why she always needed to rush to the toilet.She went back to Hangzhou to complete her university degree and stayed there to work for the China Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation.During a recent discussion panel, Mengjun, middle, bravely opened up about her struggles with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), encouraging others to shed the stigma and find hope in their journeys. Photo: RedNoteShe said many IBD patients hide their illness from others due to the shame and embarrassment that come from unpredictable symptoms such as bowel urgency and diarrhoea.But she feels they need a lighthouse – a hope that they can one day open up about their illness and live unashamedly.While taking part in the foundation’s activities and meeting more patients like her, Mengjun said she learned to open up herself and find meaning in helping others, and realised that “being ill is not my fault.”Her remarkable experience moved many.“Healing others is also healing ourselves,” an online observer said.“That evening’s thunderstorm still lingers on her mind, but she also keeps grabbing that rack above her to reach the sunlight and brings sunlight to other people,” said another.