Is the story true about the woman who threw money at the hospital after learning she had terminal cancer?

Posts with a photo from a hospital, the floor of which is covered with banknotes, are popular on social networks. It is alleged that the money was scattered in a fit of despair by a patient who was told by her doctor that she could not be cured. We have verified the authenticity of such publications.

In RuNet, this story became very popular in July 2024. For example, on July 7 public “World of facts” on VKontakte (12.1 million views at the time of writing this analysis) said: “A woman with cancer came to a private hospital with a bag of money, begging the doctor to save her. The doctor said that the cancer was at the last stage and nothing could be done. In desperation, she scattered the money along the corridor, shouting: “What is money for? It can’t buy health, time or life!” This event makes you think: is it worth pursuing material things in order to realize the true value of things in the face of death?”

Publications in other communities on the same social network also went viral, including “News today"(1.6 million views), "Moscow"(657,000), "True news"(615,000), "Hot events" (498,000) and "Russian news"(354,000). Similar posts in July 2024 were posted in “Odnoklassniki"(one of the posts gained 13,500 classes), Instagram* (one of the posts received 43,000 likes), Telegram (examples here, here And here) and on "Peekaboo" However, publications with the same photo and a similar story appeared in the Russian-language segment of the Internet earlier - for example, in TikTok in September 2023, on Instagram in the summer of 2021 (here And here) and in "VKontakte"in the spring of the same year.

The Russian-language posts mentioned above do not say in which country this story took place or where the hospital in the photo is. However, the story has been circulating in other languages ​​for several years, and the location of the action varies from publication to publication. For example, on Facebook* some posts indicate that the photo was taken in a Chinese city Harbin, in others the location of filming is called a hospital in Nigeria.

Using the reverse search Based on the image in the TinEye service, “Verified” found a viral photo in a slightly higher quality than in the posts given at the beginning of the analysis. In this version of the photo you can see a floor sign that says “exit", and the scattered banknotes visually resemble one of the variants of the 100 yuan bill. In addition, we found this photo from logos several Chinese news portals.

Also thanks to the reverse search “Verified” established that the distributed photo first appeared on the Internet in the summer of 2014. For example, then Taiwanese and Chinese media wrote about him, including ETtoday, Epoch Times, Shanghaiist, sina.com.cn And sohu.com. According to news reports on these resources, the viral image depicts the consequences of an incident that occurred in early July 2014. So, on the Chinese social network Weibo there is a similar photo published one of the doctors at the Harbin Medical Hospital university. According to him, a man came to the medical institution who wanted to find his ex-girlfriend, who worked there as a nurse. The man was reportedly very angry when he learned that his lover had a new boyfriend with a BMW, so he brought a bag full of 100 yuan bills to the hospital. According to witnesses, the couple was quarreling, and in a fit of rage, the former boyfriend began throwing banknotes at the girl, which scattered along the hospital corridor. Then hospital security intervened in the situation.

“Verified” it is not known for certain how a rich woman with terminal cancer began to appear in the story, but it can be assumed that the error arose according to the “broken phone” principle. So, we discovered that already in August 2014 on one of the Chinese forums photo commented like this: “The billionaire tycoon hysterically scattered money out of desperation at the First Hospital of Harbin Medical University. What is money when a person’s life is running out and wealth cannot save him? At this moment, in his eyes, these banknotes are just pieces of paper.” Probably, later users figured out that the billionaire had cancer, and when the story was subsequently spread, the hero’s gender changed.

Thus, such reports about a woman who, after learning the diagnosis, scattered money at the hospital, are completely fictitious. However, the photo with a pile of banknotes on the floor was actually taken in a hospital, but the money was scattered by a jealous boyfriend during an argument with his ex-girlfriend, who worked as a nurse.

*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Instagram and Facebook, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.

Cover photo: social networks

Mostly not true

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