Chinese Hospital Staff Suspended After Selling IV Bags Used on Pop Star JJ Lin

Celebrity merchandise is big business and many want to cash in on anything that’s even remotely related to big stars. This can come in the form of autographed items, but also less standard ones like the pregnancy test supposedly used by Britney Spears that sold for thousands of dollars. This latest example from China falls under the latter category.

The Zhenjiang First People’s Hospital in Jiangsu province suspended 11 of its staff members on Sunday after they allegedly tried to sell medical tools used on Singaporean singer JJ Lin.

This included needles and IV bags used on the 38-year-old Mandopop star when he was admitted to the hospital the morning after a concert after feeling physical discomfort, Sixth Tone reported. The items were advertised on the social media platform WeChat just hours after he was discharged.

Several nurses and other staff are also seen lying down on the star’s hospital bed and posing for photos in a video circulating online.

The hospital announced the suspension of the 11 staff members in a statement but said that the used equipment were disposed of “in strict accordance” with its regulations and that they discovered “no illegal behaviour in its management of medical waste after a thorough check.”

“We take this matter seriously,” the statement reads, according to Sup China. “In the meantime, we will further enhance professional job training at the hospital to avoid similar incidents in the future.”

But screenshots circulating online showing the staff's chat messages reveal that they tried to sell the items. The person who originally posted the sale was an unidentified nurse who wrote in the chat: “I’m offering the same doctor and the same medicine that Lin used, as well as his bloody needle. Leave a comment below if you are interested.”

The post included a photo of a drip bag attached to a label that has the singer’s last name. It started circulating outside WeChat, making its way to microblogging platform Weibo, where it became a trending topic with a hashtag that translates to “JJ Lin’s drip bag and syringe are up for sale.”

Posts with the hashtag have since amassed around 450 million views and over 37,000 comments.

Fans came to the star’s defence online. “Staff members have violated the patient’s privacy by leaking information about his hospitalisation, which is unprofessional,” one said.

Another Weibo user commented: “In theory, medical workers should treat celebrities just like other patients. However, these hospital employees let their fandom take precedence over their professional ethics.”

Lin’s representative has since denounced the incident, saying that the hospital staff “neglected professional conduct.”

The pop star’s father even spoke with reporters to express his disappointment over the staff’s actions, saying that no matter how much fans love their idol, they “shouldn’t cross the line.”

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