Commitment
and writing down her thoughts at work, and later shares her experience with front-line doctors.
Her intense schedule is reflected in her log.
“January 19, night shift: I took charge of both the fever clinic and the observation room on the second floor. I began answering consultation calls before it was time for work. From 5 pm to 10:45 pm, there were 24 medical calls,” Zhang wrote.
“Of course, I (worked hard) trying to understand the causes and come up with personalized treatment plans for those infected. There could be similarities in the treatment of the unexplained pneumonia. Although we don’t have a proven, effective treatment for the coronavirus, it won’t stop us from offering all the treatment we can to the patents.”
She is not alone in her fight. Since the outbreak started, more than 7,000 employees of Zhang’s hospital and tens of thousands of medical personnel from across the country have committed themselves to fighting the epidemic. Many gave up their Spring Festival holidays to join the battle.
As of 8 pm on Feb 5, a total of 107 medical teams and 10,596 medical team members were assisting with prevention and treatment work in Hubei, including 9,061 medical team members in Wuhan.
Sun Chunxuan, a male nurse from Jiangsu province, volunteered to go to Wuhan when he heard that the Jiangsu government was recruiting local medical staff members to support the stricken city.
He even postponed his wedding after discussing the matter with his fiancee, a doctor who runs a clinical laboratory at a hospital. In turn, she volunteered to work at fever clinics in Nanjing, Jiangsu’s capital.
“We have no regrets about our decision. We will marry when I return home after our victory,” Sun said.
In addition to medical staff members, hundreds of thousands of people are actively seeking ways to make a contribution, either on the front line or through donations of money, food, face masks and other items, either from their homes or workplaces.
On Jan 28, about 45 sanitation workers in Wuhan volunteered to help clean local hospitals.
Cao Yinxiu, a 47-year-old who has worked in the sector for 12 years, was one of them. Last year, the industry veteran participated in cleaning work at several major events, including the World Fly-in Expo and the World Military Games, which were both held in Wuhan.
Cao said she and her colleagues were well-prepared for the task. “If there’s anything I can do to help, I will certainly try,” she said, adding that she had to persuade her son that she would be OK, as he was strongly opposed to her decision initially.
When he heard about the spread of the coronavirus, Muhammad Usman Janjua, 29, who lectures in clinical internal medicine at Changsha Medical University in Hunan province, wrote to the authorities and asked for permission to join the fight in Wuhan.
Having arrived in China in 2007, the Pakistan-born practitioner graduated from Hunan University of Chinese Medicine with a bachelor’s in 2012. He joined the Central South
Earlier this month, a series of photos made waves online. They were taken after people from a village in Henan province donated 50 metric tons of green Chinese onions to epidemic-stricken areas. Despite the residents’ low incomes, more than 300 of them helped to harvest the onions and donate them to Hubei.
Similarly, people from a mountain village in Yunnan province donated 22 tons of bananas to Wuhan, with hundreds of residents transporting the fruit down the mountain on motorcycles. Moreover, many truck drivers have supported Hubei by delivering necessities such as food from other areas to places hit by the epidemic.
Doctors, nurses, teachers, sanitation workers, farmers, truck drivers and construction workers: Those groups and others have all made concerted efforts to support the people of Hubei. By Feb 1, the province had received donations of about 7 billion yuan ($1 billion), according to the local government.
As of Feb 7, central government departments, along with other provinces and cities, had provided more than 10 million items of medical equipment for Hubei, while private individuals from all walks of life had donated more than 10 million pieces of protective medical equipment to help the province in its fight against the virus.