On February 1, the reporter went again to Haihe Hospital, Tianjin's designated hospital for the new coronavirus. 37 patients have been treated here. At present, the patients are being taken good care of, and some of them are gradually recovering. The hospital is in good order and the medical staffs are confident in defeating the epidemic.

A state of calmness and order

In the middle of the epidemic, many people can’t help feeling terrified when it comes to Haihe Hospital. However, when the reporter made interviews in the emergency and outpatient wards, it turned out that the medical treatment was provided in good order and the medical staffs were working effectively and smoothly.

Meeting of experts is to start.

Good news, some patients are close to being discharged!

Shao Shifeng, deputy director of Haihe Hospital, said in an interview that after careful treatment and consultation with the expert panel, a confirmed patient of the novel coronavirus in the hospital has not had fever for three consecutive days and the clinical symptoms have eased while the first nucleic acid test was negative. Today, a second nucleic acid test will be performed. If the result is negative again, the patient will meet the standard of lifting the quarantine and discharge approval.

The first and second patients confirmed infected with the new coronavirus in the city, who have received a lot of attention, are under recovery and their condition, appetite, and respiratory symptoms are all improving. They can now get off the bed, and their chest image review also shows an absorption trend.

What about the patients’ prognosis?

Yu Hongzhi, a doctor in the Red Zone and deputy director of the Department of Respiratory and Critical Illness inHaihe Hospital, said they are facing the epidemic with a sense of normality because they are confident of victory.

Yu said that from the current status, if there is no irreversible damage to the lungs of the patients, they would have no major problems later. Currently, the majority of patients admitted to Haihe Hospital are stable, but two patients are in relatively critical situation, including one aged above 90. The hospital is in close contact with experts in the city, seeking for individual diagnosis and treatment.

How do doctors work every day?

According to Shao, the wards of Haihe Hospital were vacated before the early morning of January 27 and 600 beds are now available. The hospital has renovated the facilities for fever clinics, dedicated staff on duty, established isolation wards of fever clinics, and set up nine medical teams of 153 doctors and 390 nurses who are the backbone of various departments.

Bai Dapeng, deputy chief physician of the Infectious Disease Department of Haihe Hospital, is the doctor to treat the first confirmed patient in Tianjin. Since January 20, he has remained on the front line to help the patients. He said that the doctors at Haihe Hospital have a three-level diagnosis and treatment process. Doctors at level 1 are responsible for inquiring about the patients’ medical history, making checkups, and transferring case data; doctors at level 2 need to analyze the patients’ condition and make treatment plans; doctors at level 3 take overall control, adjust the treatment regimen, and report the condition to the expert panel.

Bai enter the second infected ward area of the hospital after it was opened on January 26, and has acted as the person in charge. He said that with the gradual deepening understanding of the new coronavirus, they will certainly overcome it and win the war against the epidemic.

Anesthesia doctor acts as Super Daddy

Guo Yanhui is the chief physician of the Department of Anesthesiology in Haihe Hospital. He is not working in the Red Zone this time, but his wife is there. Guo's second child is now only thirteen months old. Since his wife, a nurse, entered the Red Zone on the first day of the Spring Festival (January 25), Guo has taken on the responsibility of taking care of two children. The Super Daddy experienced the hard work of being a father and a mother at the same time as the younger baby is still in the weaning period.

"On the first night when I took take of the baby alone, I felt a bite on my arm by the kid in the middle of the night. I think she was looking for breast milk." Guo Yanhui said, "In the past, once the child cried, I handed her to her mother immediately. Now I can only deal with it myself."

Speaking of childcare skills, Guo said with a smile,"I can feed the baby and change diapers."

The mother in the Red Zone has to take galactophyga pills. If she misses her children, she would make video calls. "If the children cry, I can only coax them. I don’t have many options. However, I only share good news with my wife," Gao said.

Head nurse who calls herself a “fool”

Wang Li, the head nurse of the Infected Ward Area One, also participated in the treatment of the first confirmed case. At 7 o'clock that night, Wang was about to go home from work as she received the task of entering the area. The first day, she worked for 24 hours around the clock. In the next 11 days, she worked more than 10 hours every day. With fully-protective equipment on all day, Wang felt close to collapse.

Wang Li, 45 years old, said that she refuses to give in to old age, but she feels physically weaker. As head nurse, she is not only faced with physical challenges, but also has a lot to consider every day. In her words, there are too many things in her mind and she feels she has become a "fool".

Although she joked as becoming a fool, Wang Li was very considerate towards the patients. A grandpa has an accent, so he was arranged in the same area with his grandson to facilitate the diagnosis and treatment and keep him accompanied. Wang Li asked a 17-year-old young female patient: "How are you today?" while busy cleaning up the ward this morning. The girl didn't respond. Wang Li immediately knew that something was wrong and got to know that the girl was in bad mood. She patiently comforted her until the girl's mood improved.

Patients’ gratitude is the biggest motivation

"The youngest member of our team is 23 years old, and the oldest nurse is 50. Everyone is very united and passionate," said Sun Yan, head of the emergency team in Haihe Hospital.

"In the past few days, the patients have kept saying thank you to us, and they have also written down words of gratitude, saying that they are fortunate to receive our treatment and that our service is very caring," Sun added.

Sun told the nurses in her team the patients' gratitude. Some nurses were moved to tears. They said that the improvement of the patients is their greatest motivation at work.

By Huo Yanhua Photo by Ma Cheng