"As if I once again smelt the sweet scent of osmanthus in Xianning, Hubei"

After Qingming Festival, the sun shines after rain in Kunming. As I glance at the sun outside my window, I suddenly long to see Old Li, who is far away in Hubei. Is he doing well?

Looking back on the days when we combatted the pandemic in Xianning last year, Old Li was the person most unforgettable to me. At the time, I joined the third medical team from Yunnan province to aid Hubei, and came to the Xianning Central Hospital. Old Li was not the patient whom I received with the most severe condition, but his story moved me to tears.

March 14, 2020 was the first day when Old Li was able to stand up from his bed after being diagnosed with COVID-19. He stood by the window in his unit for about a minute, and when he lied back onto his bed again, he started writing on the whiteboard. Since his trachea remained intubated, we communicated through a whiteboard. I saw him write down the sentence with difficulty: "I see the sun."

That beam of sunshine also shone into my heart. My teammates and I could not help but embrace together, we were laughing and crying at the same time. This line of writing showed that Old Li's body was gradually recovering, which meant all our efforts were worthwhile.

Old Li, who was 58 years old, is from Tongcheng county of Xianning city, Hubei province. On February 9, 2020, he underwent tracheal intubation after being diagnosed with COVID-19. On February 14, he was tracheotomized, but his condition was still deteriorating. Through remote consultation, Li Bo, leader of the medical team from Yunnan Province First People's Hospital decided to transfer Old Li to the ICU center at Xianning Central Hospital for treatment.

I had rich experiences transferring patients with serious illnesses, and assumed responsibility for this task with no hesitation. At the same time, my teammate, nurse Chen Jun, came out after a four-hour shift from the ICU. He grabbed a few quick bites, and put on his full set of protective gear and went together with me.

The journey from Tongcheng county to Xianning city was over two hours, and Old Li was in extremely poor condition. He needed drugs to adjust pressure-boosting and ventilator the whole way. Chen and I held his hands all along and constantly told him that whenever he felt sick, he could pinch our hands. However, Old Li kept worrying that vomiting would cause us to get infected. Hence, whenever he could not hold it in, he would take great pains to hide and refused to let us help him clean.

Facing someone who was so afraid of troubling others, a person who was deeply sick but did not give up hope, all we could do was to try our best to save him. The process was difficult, during the first few days when Old Li was transferred to the Central Hospital, his condition was still worsening. We consulted specialists from Guangzhou, conducted many remote conferences with specialists from Yunnan Province First People's Hospital, and constantly improved our treatment plans.

On March 13, 2020, Old Li was finally disconnected from the respirator. On March 14, under the protection and care of six medical workers, Old Li stood up and walked for the first time since falling ill. After meticulous treatment, his condition was improving day by day. Prior to discharge, Old Li chatted with us and said that when he gets out of the hospital and when the pandemic passes, we must go back to Tongcheng county again to taste his homemade wine fermented with osmanthus flowers. We all smiled and agreed to this promise.

On March 12, 2021, a year after our medical team aided Hubei, a team of reporters from Xianning Daily and Xiangcheng Metropolis Daily came to our hospital and brought news about Old Li. After his recovery, Old Li indeed went back to his hometown and opened a brewery. Upon hearing that media reporters from Xianning will come to conduct interviews in Yunnan, not only did he record a video to greet us and express his gratitude, he also sent two bottles of homemade wine.

In the video, I saw that his breath was steady while speaking. This meant his lung functions are recovering well. I have faith that he followed our advice and continued to exercise when he returned home.

As a medical worker, I am honored to have joined such a battle, where I was able to work side by side with teammates from Xianning and Yunnan. Now, every time when I smell the sweet scent of osmanthus, I will think of Xianning. When I hear people mention wine fermented with osmanthus flowers, Xianning also comes up in my memories. Xianning has become a place in my heart which is special and unforgettable for the rest of my life.

Contributed by: Ren Weidong, reporter of Guangming Daily; Huang Su, Correspondent of Guangming Daily