现在中文媒体都这么编故事吗？这件事芝加哥主流媒体有报道。David Tom arrived in San Francisco as a stowaway from China in 1949, along with his brother seeking greater opportunity in the U.S. He worked in Chinese restaurants in San Francisco for a year, then came to Chicago to work at restaurants here and live in Chinatown.
Mr. Tom's ordeal began when he contracted tuberculosis in 1952 and was sent to a hospital. A female aide attempted to give him a sponge bath, and Mr. Tom threw the sheet off him and raced naked through the building shouting "incomprehensively," which hospital officials viewed as a threatening act, according to newspaper accounts.
Mr. Tom was then shipped to a state mental institution on the Northwest Side, where he was diagnosed as having had "a psychotic reaction, unclassified type." In September 1952, according to Murphy, a nurse on his unit noted that he "speaks English very poorly and it is difficult to understand him. He says: 'This nut house. Why am I here?'"
By the late 1970s, Mr. Tom was using the floor as a toilet, stripping off his clothes and doing little except lying on the floor, according to the court records.
这名男子名叫蔡绍华。1950年代初，他从广东台山来美国，但他不会英语，只会讲广东台山话。当他接受美国海关检查时，海关人员怀疑他有肺结核，要求他脱衣接受检查，但他完全听不懂对方在说什么，用台山话不断大声反问海关人员，甚至发生冲突。
美国海关没有任何人能听懂广东台山话。反复沟通无果后，警方断定他有精神疾病，直接把他关进精神病院，结果他在精神病院度过31年时光。
直到1983年，在库克郡的公共监护人莫费和东南亚中心的博尔等人帮助下，他终于被人解救出来，但当时他早已丧失语言能力，连他自己的家乡台山话都已经忘记，完全无法自理生活。法院宣判给他提供20多万美元的赔偿金，以补偿失去的31年时间。
法院委托东南亚中心的博尔和邬亮珊照顾他，直到2014年，他离开人世。
好端端的一个人，就因为不会说英语，还硬是与海关人员发生争执，结果被关进精神病院，从此与世隔绝，没有任何人去积极帮助营救，直到过了31年，他才重获自由。但是受到长期精神折磨后，他已经没有生活自理能力，这太悲惨了。如果当时他没有去移民，或许他的人生完全是不同的景象。