China's civil administrations reacted instantly following a Thursday report about a retired veteran who suffered from a painful leg injury at a county-level nursing home for months in Hebei province.

Veteran Yuan Zhengxin sits in a chair and his legs are bandaged to simply deal with the discharge of pus. [sina.com]

Instructed by the state's Ministry of Civil Affairs, the local civil administration has ordered the director of the nursing home in Lingshou county, Zhao Jun, to conduct a self-examination on Thursday. It revealed that further punishments will be worked out, including possibly dismissing him as the chief of the home.

Yuan Zhengxin, a retired veteran of the former Voluntary Army of China whose legs are in critical condition, has been taken to hospital for treatment.

The Yanzhao Metropolis News disclosed in a Thursday report that 16 elderly people living in the nursing home suffered from shabby living conditions.

In the report, the elders complained they were not attended to and living in unheated rooms.

Yuan Zhengxin, one of the residents, most of whom once took part in China's Liberation War and the Korean War in the country's early years, has been unable to walk due to the discharge of pus in both his legs.

According to Yuan's brother, his condition began months after Yuan fractured a rib in March when he was washing his sheets. However, the nursing home failed to take him to see a doctor and paid little attention to his injury, worsening his condition.

The director of the county's bureau of civil affairs, Wang Jinmin, said he was shocked by the incident since all allocations from the government's finances have been in right place and there was enough for the livelihood and medical care of these old people.