Pakistani student moved by healthcare workers

Javaria Nasir, a Pakistani student studying medicine in China, said she has been deeply touched by the courage, dedication and selflessness Chinese medical workers showed during the COVID-19 epidemic and aspires to embody some of their spirit when she becomes a doctor.

Nasir began studying at the Shanghai Medical School of Fudan University in 2016. She is now looking forward to pursuing a postgraduate degree at the university and to working as a doctor next year.

Her decision to work in the healthcare sector was shaped by learning as a young child that her grandparents, who passed away in their village in Pakistan before she was born, did not receive adequate medical treatment due to limited resources.

“Because of my grandparents, I realized at a very young age that for so many people, medical treatment is a privilege rather than a right,” she said during the Vision China event.

After her passion for medicine brought her to China in 2016, Nasir said that she had learned many lessons, but that “the most crucial ones have been that hard work pays off, cooperation is necessary and kindness is needed when you want to heal people”.

She said that these principles and traits are embodied by China’s healthcare community, and that she had the chance to witness them in action during the COVID-19 epidemic.

She recalled a recent conference where her supervisor talked about prospects for integrating traditional Chinese medicine with Western medicine to achieve better clinical results in front of doctors from all over the world.

“The marvelous presentations delivered by speakers from different countries illustrate how willing and eager the medical community is to work together to promote the integration of two medical fields, which could only be possible with active cooperation between each party involved,” she said in her speech.

Nasir also mentioned how impressed she was by the bravery and diligence of Chinese medical workers during the most severe period of the outbreak.

She said that doctors — including those from two hospitals affiliated with Fudan University, where she is studying — had raced to Hubei province to aid local healthcare workers, undaunted by the risks and uncertainties posed by the novel coronavirus.

“There was a video that was released at the end of the Wuhan epidemic, in which rows of doctors and nurses were taking off their masks one by one. They looked so happy knowing that all their efforts and sacrifices paid off. People were safe because of them.”

Nasir said that the most touching moment for her was hearing the words of a boy in Shanghai, whose father was sent to Wuhan for several months as a member of the team.

During a ceremony, the boy said that even though he missed his father badly, he understood the importance of a doctor’s work and would try to be as brave at home as his father was being in the center of the outbreak.

“I hope he knows how grateful I am for people like his father, and the millions of other doctors who have shown and continue to show immeasurable courage in the worst of circumstances,” she said. “I hope one day when I become a doctor, I will act with as much bravery as all of them.”

Having received and witnessed so much warmth and courage as a medical student, Nasir is contemplating repaying the country and community that embraced her.

“I hope I can continue to study here for a postgraduate degree and work as a doctor. Hopefully, I will one day be able to repay some of the kindness that China and its people have shown toward me.”