On call for the battle

A group of medical workers from a 'Hong Kong-style public hospital' in Shenzhen accepted the urgent mission to look after the most serious patients who contracted the novel coronavirus in the city. Together with other 'warriors' across the city, they overcame unprecedented challenges and secured a turning point in the fight. Li Bingcun reports in Shenzhen.

Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurse Luan Jiling had never dealt with adult patients before, and when he did, his first experiences were traumatizing. He found patients desperate, panicking, and believing death hovered over them. Luan is a pediatric nurse, yet his patients are gravely ill seniors laid low by the novel coronavirus in the worst-hit district of Shenzhen.

Adult care usually is more complex. As people age, they become more and more prone to chronic illness — and for those people, when confronted with the coronavirus, the danger of death is high.

Besides the difference in choices of drugs and dosage of treatment, adult patients are also much heavier than pediatric patients, which brought additional difficulties in nursing.

Luan had been trained in this, but his clinical experience dealing with the issues was negligible, making his first practical experience a trial by fire.

"The pressure is huge. A mistake could have unimaginable consequences for patients." Luan said.

The 26-year-old nurse was working in the pediatric ICU of the University of Hong Kong–Shenzhen Hospital when he was asked if he would take an assignment at the only hospital in Shenzhen that was admitting coronavirus patients.

Luan traveled across the town as part of the first group of medical workers seconded to the Third People's Hospital of Shenzhen. It was Feb 1. As part of the post-'90s generation, he regarded the assignment as a challenge to take greater responsibility. He even considered that he'd be setting a good example for his son, who was only 2 years old.

Luan expected he would be treating infants and toddlers. Yet he was in for a shock. At the hospital, he learned none of the pediatric patients was seriously ill — it was older people who badly needed help. Most of them were over 50.