Beijing hospital lends expertise

Medical workers at the frontline of quake relief in Sichuan province have received a shot in the arm from a team of 15 doctors and nurses from Beijing's China-Japan Friendship Hospital.

The team's members were assigned to medical stations and local hospitals in quake-hit Mianzhu, Ya'an and Jiangyou as soon as they arrived in the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu on Saturday.

Amid threats of aftershocks and a lack of rest, the doctors and nurses have helped enhance local medical teams' capabilities in dealing with those hurt in the quake.

Wang Liqiang, a doctor with the emergency department at the Beijing hospital, arrived in Chengdu on the morning of May 19 by train. Wang's team includes a nurse and two drivers, who work with him onboard one of 70 ambulances organized by 120 emergency medical services.

"We have been assigned to transport and relocate patients to hospitals to get proper treatment," Wang said.

In the past two days, his ambulance has helped transfer a patient to Chongqing on a 500-km trip, and seven other patients from hospitals in Mianyang board trains leaving for major hospitals in Chongqing, Xi'an and Kunming. Yesterday, they were dispatched to Jiangyou to help transfer more patients.

"Apart from trauma, most of the patients suffer from fractures in the limbs, chest and waist from falling debris or construction," Wang said.

Being medical professionals, Wang and his colleagues are able to lift and move patients on stretchers safely, without worsening their injuries. Moreover, they are ready to treat patients in critical condition, with proper medical equipment and medicine on board.

Ma Guolin, a doctor with the Beijing hospital's radiodiagnosis department, was assigned to a local hospital in Mianyang. Ma has treated Li Mingcui, who was saved after being buried for 164 hours under debris, after an X-ray on May 20. He diagnosed a contusion in her left lung and a light compression fracture in her spine, in addition to trauma.

"Most trauma cases have involved the limbs, but we are able to help with more accurate diagnoses, such as lung infections and fracture of the ribs," Ma said.

However, the medical team from Beijing has come up against at least two obstacles in the disaster area. "The continual aftershocks have made the doctors nervous," Ma said.

After Sichuan seismologists warned that a tremor with magnitude 6-7 could occur from May 20 to 22, all patients at the hospital Ma works at were relocated to tents outside the building.

For the past several days, the doctors have also not been able to get proper sleep - they are required to sleep in tents in the open, amid constant activity. They have only gone inside buildings when they need facilities to conduct X-rays for patients.

Yet another problem is the lack of infection prevention. "Doctors from Beijing are experienced in this aspect, because they had worked through the SARS period," Ma said of the scourge five years ago. "But I've noticed a lack of such knowledge among some local staff."

Li Wenge is the team leader of seven medical professionals from the Beijing hospital. They arrived at Ya'an's People's Hospital, one of the largest local hospitals, on Tuesday afternoon. The city was less affected by the quake and has received more than 100 patients from the disaster area. The team's seven members are from the nephropathy, emergency, ICU (intensive care unit) and nursing departments.

Li said the local hospital was happy to receive the doctors from Beijing, and expressed its wish to treat patients together.

Another 20 medical professionals at the hospital in Beijing are ready to leave for the disaster area.

(China Daily 05/27/2008 page20)