His team can now reattach severed fingers or limbs. The surgery is highly time-sensitive, which made the two-hour journey to Urumqi risky in case the narrow window for reconnecting nerves and blood vessels was missed.
Since Emarjan Abdurahman's return in 2023, the hand and foot microsurgery team has performed Turpan's first congenital syndactyly separation on a child and completed more than 100 challenging finger replantation surgeries.
In addition to regular 18-month visiting rotations, the hospital also benefits from flexible support. Experts come for short-term sessions or even use weekends to offer guidance on specific challenges.
Chen Baoming, the hospital's Party secretary, says the facility moved to its current site in 2024, partly funded by Hunan, and now records over 1,000 daily outpatient visits, up from 600 to 700 at most previously. He notes that the paired assistance program has significantly improved the grassroots hospital's medical capacity, enabling quality care close to home.
In Turpan, doctors from Hunan have a collective nickname, "Doctor Mao", which has become a trusted brand over the years.
The name came in late 2022, after a Hunan medical team performed heart stent surgery on then-94-year-old Uygur patient Patamhan Nur. When she woke up, she asked for her doctors' names. Hard of hearing, she couldn't quite catch their reply but knew they were from Hunan, hometown of Chairman Mao Zedong. The nickname stuck.
For local staff members at Turpan People's Hospital, the city's top-tier general hospital under China's medical institution classification system, Hunan experts have brought more than new skills and ideas. Emergency protocols have been reworked, multidisciplinary consultations established, and most importantly, a new sense of confidence has been built. The old mindset of immediately sending critical cases to more advanced hospitals has been changed.
General surgeon Adil Anwar has been trained hands-on by three Hunan experts in succession, with a particular emphasis on minimally invasive techniques over the past three years.
His current mentor Wang Fangming, who serves as chief surgeon and visiting director of the hepatobiliary surgery department, says they usually perform physical checks and review imaging together before discussing treatment plans. Surgery training starts with simpler cases and gradually moves to more complex ones, until Adil Anwar becomes proficient enough to operate independently.
Meanwhile, with successful major liver surgeries performed by visiting experts, more local patients are now willing to undergo major procedures at the hospital. The growing caseload, in turn, has accelerated local surgeons' learning, creating a positive cycle, Adil Anwar adds.
The newest batch of 26 Hunan doctors to Turpan People's Hospital, who arrived in late May, has been paired with 35 local apprentices. Previously, this pairing strategy has seen nine local trainees promoted to department heads, according to the hospital.
"We visiting doctors are only here on rotation. Real improvement in Turpan's overall medical standards depends on the local team building their own capabilities and winning patients' trust. We can't just perform the surgeries and call it a day," Wang says.
According to Turpan People's Hospital, Grade IV surgeries — the most complex and high-risk tier — grew by 86.79 percent between 2022 and 2025. Minimally invasive procedures increased by 51.99 percent. More than 110 new technologies and procedures have been introduced to Turpan.
Acute heart attack patients used to be sent to Urumqi, but now emergency percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures are regularly performed locally. In a typical case, doctors restored blood flow in a patient with acute extensive anterior wall myocardial infarction in just 32 minutes, far below the international standard of 90 minutes for door-to-balloon time.
Ouyang Yu, visiting director of the hospital, says the Hunan doctors are working to form multidisciplinary clusters across key areas.
For instance, in the acute and critical care chain, Hunan doctors are stationed in the emergency, ICU, cardiovascular surgery, neurosurgery, respiratory medicine and anesthesiology departments, among others, covering the full spectrum of care for acute heart attacks, strokes, pulmonary embolisms and major hemorrhages. Similar coordination across gynecology, pediatrics, ultrasound and anesthesiology ensures a team-based response to obstetric and neonatal emergencies.
Backup is on standby, too. In June, Turpan People's Hospital admitted an 11-year-old child with hydronephrosis, requiring a challenging renal plication procedure. He Jun, pediatric urologist from Changsha-based Hunan Children's Hospital, was called to the scene.
He departed from the provincial capital at dawn on June 30, traveling over 3,000 kilometers to Turpan, and upon arrival joined the local team for multidisciplinary consultation and devising the surgical plan. After completing the procedure that preserved the child's kidney function, He flew back that very night to perform his regular duties the next morning.
Ouyang, who also serves as head of the newest batch of the Doctor Mao team in Turpan, comprising 58 health professionals, says, "We're not competing for patients — we want to keep them here in Turpan, to guarantee timely care, reduce their costs and improve their well-being.
"Through this small community of visiting doctors, we hope to bring about broader integration across regional medical services," he adds.
Zhu Youfang in Turpan, Xinjiang, and Mao Weihua in Urumqi contributed to this story.
