Medical workers answer call from Wuhan

Ni Zhong, a respiratory therapist, knows about the risk of infection, and how to counter it, when opening the airway to help a patient with COVID-19 breathe.

From West China Hospital affiliated to Sichuan University, he worked as a member of the hospital's team to aid Wuhan, Hubei province, the city hardest hit by COVID-19 earlier this year. There he treated a patient who had difficulty in breathing.

"Without enough protective equipment, my colleagues found a big plastic bag, and wrapped it around my neck under the protective mask to reduce the exposure danger. And I helped the patient to breathe in this way," Ni told Xinhua News Agency.

He was among 175 medical workers dispatched to aid Wuhan from West China Hospital. As a distinguished hospital ranking second on China's list of best hospitals (2009-2018) by Fudan University, the hospital mainly focused on saving critically ill patients in Wuhan. The medical team managed seven ward areas and treated 667 patients during the 70-odd days there.

"When we just arrived in Wuhan, we discovered patients in different condition were not strictly differentiated for treating, so we classified the ward areas into three grades, in which people in extremely and relatively severe conditions, and patients with mild symptoms were treated respectively so that we could distribute rescue efforts in a targeted way," says Kang Yan, a member of the medical team to support Wuhan.

They also brought a nursing mode they followed in West China Hospital to Wuhan, which ensured each shift of nurses on duty included a local nurse and a senior nurse with deep experience from departments of respiration, infection or ICU, so that they could cooperate in a highly efficient way and improve nursing quality.

Moreover, they developed a personalized therapy for each patient, and followed a remote consultation mode which enabled experts in different places to discuss and improve therapies, and thus significantly improved the ability to save critically ill patients.

"We discussed conditions of the patients every day in our WeChat group. Without specific medication, the treatment of each patient in severe condition was a see-saw battle. We could not be casual at any time," says Xu Yuanning, a member of the team.

Besides West China Hospital, a medical team of more than 100 people from Tianjin also joined the fight against the pandemic in Enshi Tujia and Miao autonomous prefecture, Hubei province, among which a team of 70 workers specialized in disease control contributed a lot in helping other medical workers and protecting local people.

On Feb 13, Li Zipeng, who is responsible for epidemic information management at Nankai district's center for disease control and prevention in Tianjin, arrived in Badong county, Enshi, and soon devoted himself to checking the transmission of coronavirus.

"Epidemiological investigation was like police solving cases, and I sometimes needed to talk to the patients face-to-face," recalls Li, who talked to the patients again and again to help them memorize details of places they went to.

Li needed to collect information about the frequency, time and location of patients' exposure, so that he could summarize the information and clarify connection between the cases. He often had to organize the data late at night with his colleagues when he was in Badong.

"I fully felt the weight of responsibility as a disease-control worker during the more than two months in Enshi. Whenever we are needed by our country, we will step out to help immediately," says Li.

His colleague Wang Nan, who actively applied to join the aid team in February after he had already taken part in the fight in Tianjin, was responsible for guiding the disinfection and sterilization work in Xuan'en county, Enshi.

Wang and his colleagues visited nine towns of the county in about 10 days, tutored local medical workers how to disinfect and sterilize, helped local disease control centers to compile related technical documents, and carried out technical training activities.

"The wet and cold weather, and the winding mountain trails posed challenges to our team members who endured high-intensity work. But local people's and medical workers' care made us feel warm," says Wang.

"It was an unforgettable experience. When people all around China were aiding Hubei in various ways at that time, I was one of them, and I'm proud of myself."