A sense of direction

Besides taking care of her patients, Jiang also joined an expert team to patrol designated hospitals in the city for COVID-19 patients to find the potentially seriously ill patients and arrange special monitoring or transfer to the ICU wards.

"It's crucial for a potentially seriously ill patient to be identified early," Jiang says.

During each patrol, Jiang would check on each patient's vital signs, their degree of difficulty in breathing and their oxygen saturation, as well as taking a little time to observe suspected cases.

"If a patient's lips turns a little blue, it means their blood oxygen saturation has dropped and if a patient is using the accessory respiratory muscle that should not normally be used when breathing, they also need more oxygen," she says.

From early March, Jiang's daily routine included one more item on the agenda-if there was a COVID-19 death the day before, all doctors in charge of each ward zone in designated hospitals would gather together for a review and a group discussion.

The meetings, which could last anywhere up to 4 hours, would be attended by more than 40 doctors and experts.

"The doctor who took charge of the patient would make a report giving an overview of the whole treatment process, and then all of the doctors would discuss what could have been done better," Jiang recalls.

She thinks it was an effective way for doctors to learn about the new disease and about the effects of different treatments.

"Even though we could not bring the lives of those patients back, the discussion was helpful for the patients still fighting," Jiang says.