Nurse recalls bonds of friendship amid outbreak
In the first a few months of 2020, Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, China’s hardest-hit area by the COVID-19 outbreak, faced a serious shortage of supplies and medical workers. Responding to the call by President Xi Jinping, countless doctors and nurses applied to go to the city to tackle the outbreak.
Ke Qiaohong, 31, the head nurse of a blood purification center at Anxi County Hospital in Quanzhou, Fujian province, also volunteered to help.
Ke worked in Wuhan for over a month. “I didn’t feel lonely although I was far away from my home,’’ she says. “Patients I met became my new family. Their strong will and kindness supported me fighting on the battlefield with a firm mind.”
Ke says that it was her fate to become a nurse.
She remembers that when she was at kindergarten, they went on a spring trip to the actual hospital she currently works at. The hospital was funded in part by donations by overseas Chinese and the greenery around the hospital was amazingly beautiful. That trip left a very good impression. After graduating from junior high school, she didn’t continue her study but started to work. But life wasn’t easy for a young worker, so Ke’s uncle suggested she might consider studying in a nursing school.
“I really enjoyed my studying experience, and it was such a dream come true to become a medical worker to heal people,” Ke says.
Ke filled out the application form to support Hubei without hesitation. After the hospital informed her that she’s one of five staff members who were chosen, her parents became so worried that they couldn’t eat anything, although they finally respected her decision.
Ke got engaged last Christmas Eve. The fiance, Wang Zhenhu, works at the same hospital as a doctor in the department of nephrology.
“We both consider offering medical help to Wuhan as an honor,” Wang says. “I’m proud that she is so brave, but I’m also worried about the potential consequence of her braveness.”
On Feb 4, Ke embarked on the journey to Wuhan together with another 102 medical workers from Fujian. They started working in a makeshift cabin hospital in the Dongxihu district of Wuhan three days later.
Ke’s daily job was nursing 30 to 40 coronavirus patients, most of whom had no significant clinical symptoms. She was there to reassure them, observe their condition, distribute medicine, take care of their daily life needs and participate in emergency treatment.
“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid, because the virus is invisible and the hospital was inundated by it,” Ke says. “So we paid 120 percent attention to self-protection.”
In the makeshift hospital, medical workers put the safety of patients before their personal needs.
The integrity of the protection suit had to be upheld, which meant that sometimes adult diapers were worn. Any discomfort had to be dealt with. Despite these challenges, Ke collected many warm memories of those days in Hubei.
Ke recalls that one day, a man, 60, ran into the hospital, panting. She immediately noticed that he was suffering difficulty in breathing. She quickly helped him to sit down on a chair and measured his blood oxygen level.
Ke vividly remembers the result, just 85 percent (it should be over 95 percent in normal cases). She asked a colleague to get a doctor, transferred the patient to the emergency room, and put him on breathing equipment.
Ke remembers that as she was helping him, he begged her not to get too close as he did not want to infect her. ”I held his hand and told him he would be OK,’’ Ke says.
He stabilized and later his wife came to the hospital and hugged Ke very emotionally.
Keeping the spirits of the patients up was also a key task. Ke says they taught patients how to properly wash their hands; spent time together singing, chatting, dancing, celebrating birthdays, exchanging gifts and practicing a traditional Chinese healing exercise.
A patient named Tian Muzhou felt really down and anxious when he tested positive for coronavirus.
Ke noticed that they came from the same hometown, which was the origin of a famous oolong tea from Fujian, so she brought him two packs, hoping the taste of home would cheer him up.
After treatment, Tian recovered and texted Ke when he left the isolation ward. He texted, “May good people (like you) be free from mishaps all their lives.”
Indeed, Ke has kept in touch with many patients she met in Hubei after she came back to Fujian.
In the afternoon of April 27, Ke received a message from Dong Guanghe, who she nursed in Wuhan.
Dong wrote, “The outbreak is like a nightmare, but thanks to it, we met you, the angel in white. You helped us to regain our health bit by bit, and influenced by you, I’ve learned to help people in need. Thank you, again.”