In the intensive care unit, we did our best to save patients

Wang Kai, intensive care unit nurse at the Afflicted Hospital of Hebei University, providing assistance to Hebei Chest Hospital

"When trouble occurs at one spot, help comes from all quarters." Upon hearing Baoding City will form a medical unit to rush to the epidemic rescue in Shijiazhuang City, I volunteered myself and was selected.

On January 11, I arrived in Shijiazhuang with the medical unit. When we waited for the test results from the two nucleic acid tests, my teammates and I diligently worked on basic training. We repetitively practiced putting on and taking off our protection suits. This skill is extremely important, especially when we take the protection suit off, because the inside of the suit cannot have contact with the outside environment.

In early morning of January 19, my phone suddenly rang, and the medical unit received a notice: from 8 a.m., we are ordered to head into Hebei Chest Hospital to work in batches.

Looking at the work schedule, I was luckily placed in the first batch. I lost all my drowsiness, and became both excited and nervous. Excited, because I will finally be heading into the battlefield. Nervous, because the unfamiliar environment makes me a bit unsettled.

To help myself calm down, I immediately opened my phone and reviewed the training we did on protection requirements, rules and regulations, and operation procedures. When I closed my eyes, I was still repeating everything in my head.

At 6 o'clock in the morning, I got up to get ready, and the work procedures kept blinking in my head like a film. Considering that I have to disinfect my clothes after work, to reduce contact, I put the disinfection products at the door ahead of time. After everything was prepared, I finally walked out of the dorm feeling assured.

By this time, the first glimmer of dawn had arrived. Hebei Chest Hospital is just across the street. Walking on the street that is cold and cheerless, I suddenly had an unexplainable yearning, I yearned for heavy traffic, and yearned that the street were bursting with activities.

After arriving at the dressing area, I took a long breath, and craftily equipped myself with face mask, hat, one-piece protection suit, shoe cover, safety goggles, and two layers of gloves. Around 8 o'clock, I was guided by the nurse-in-charge into the intensive care unit and met the two patients who are under my care.

"Where are you from?"

"Baoding."

"I've been there. The donkey burgers are delicious."

"When you are better, come to Baoding again, I'll treat you to it."

He is an old man in the recovery stage with a great mental state. After I helped him take in his food and medicine, I chatted with him about his daily life. To me, communication is very important, as a positive attitude can increase one's confidence.

During work, the safety goggles will easily get foggy. With experiences from last year, I wiped the goggle lens with iodophor before putting them on, and effectively solved the problem. However, there was still a "small situation" that I encountered. The other patient was heavily sick and had a lot of sputum. To help him feel more comfortable, every two hours I patted his back for 10 minutes to help him excrete sputum. Since this takes a lot of physical effort and makes me short of breath, my myopic glasses easily got foggy. Therefore, every time after I patted his back, there was a heavy mist in front of my eyes. I had to stop and adjust my breath. When the fog dissolved into water and my eyes can see clearly again, I could continue my work.

The ICU is a battlefield, and every medical staff is quietly sticking to their positions, doing their best to treat and cure patients. During work, time passes by very fast, and it is time for a shift change in an instant. Since this was my first day in the inpatient ward, after the handover, I was not in a hurry to leave, but stayed in the ward to study the standard format for writing nursing records and instrumentation.

At 1 o’clock in the afternoon, I walked out of the inpatient ward. I was touched by what I saw: my colleagues who had come with me to the inpatient ward together were all standing in the corridor waiting for me.

When I left the hospital, I was no longer perturbed as when I came. Instead, I gained a strong faith in our battle: there is no winter that is insurmountable, and no spring that will not come.

Contributed by: Geng Jiankuo, Dong Dazheng, reporters of Guangming Daily

Translated by Zhang Junye