Medical specialists divide to conquer
A Wuhan hospital's plan to battle the COVID-19 crisis saw staff members split into groups to effectively treat critical patients, Wang Ru reports.
Since COVID-19 can easily lead to sudden cardiac arrest and fulminant myocarditis, the heart-protection group was established to be prepared to save those that might be subject to underlying heart conditions.
On the morning of Feb 19, Zhou Ning and Wang Luyun, two of the heart group doctors, after discussing the situation of a 50-year-old patient with the surname Cheng, who was suffering from respiratory failure, undertook an operation using extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation machines.
Eight days later, the patient regained consciousness and could breathe by himself again. Even in a weak state, the patient managed to utter xiexie, "thank you" in Chinese, to the medical workers.
COVID-19 can cause a large amount of inflammatory issues inside the bodies of patients, resulting in potentially serious damage to the kidneys.
During the pandemic, the kidney team spent 3,900 hours treating 371 patients. Team members all lived in the hospital to respond to calls quickly, at any time of day or night.
Arguably one of the most high-risk areas of work for the medical workers was the airway. Since the virus often led to lesions in the lung, many patients had difficulty breathing and medical workers had to open their airways manually to help them breathe. A group of 40 people were responsible for doing this at great risk of being infected, and they performed nearly 200 intubation procedures during the fight.
