Dividedloyalties

A Chinese obstetrician battles cancer at home but worries about her patients back in Tunisia

GUO Luping had to break the promise she made to her Tunisian patients. The Chinese obstetrician worked in Tunisia for 15 months on a Chinese medical aid program to the country. When she came back to her hometown in southeast China’s Jiangxi Province in 2016, she got bad news. The 41-year-old doctor was diagnosed with mid-to-late-stage breast cancer. Having helped countless patients abroad, the doctor now had to care about her own health.

Guo had a successful surgery soon after the diagnosis, but she then asked to leave the hospital before completing the prescribed chemotherapy treatment. Guo’s doctor, Xiong Qiuyun, a cancer specialist with the Third Hospital of Nanchang in the province’s capital, said he was concerned because she had not seeked medical treatment earlier. He persuaded her to keep her plans on hold for the time being.

Today, even as she remains hospitalized for treatment in Nanchang, Guo said she hopes to return to Tunisia. “Before coming back to China, I had already booked my return ticket and promised several patients that I would help deliver their babies,” she said. “But I had to break my promise. This makes me feel quite uneasy.” dangerous to work in Tunisia,” she told Chinafrica.

Guo went to the Sidi Bouzid Regional Hospital in Sidi Bouzid Governorate in central Tunisia, as a member of China’s 21st medical team to the country. Despite the difficult working conditions and communication problems, she devoted herself to her patients as soon as stepped onto the sun-scorched Tunisian soil in 2014.