A passion to heal taken to new heights

Doctor initially finds Tibet challenging but soon feels at home as she provides valuable care, Wang Ru reports.

Zheng Wanqi had never visited the Tibet autonomous region, nor heard of Nagchu, a prefecture-level city in the area, before she visited as a doctor participating in a program to provide medical aid in 2021. But now she has built a bond with the place and its people.

Back in 2020, Zheng's journey began with a phone call to her family. She had worked as a pediatrician at the Second Hospital of Dalian Medical University for nearly a decade. The journey from Dalian, a coastal city in Northeast China's Liaoning province, to Nagchu in northern Tibet, at an average altitude of more than 4,500 meters, was more than 4,000 kilometers.

She arrived at Nagchu People's Hospital in early 2021 with several other colleagues, as the fifth batch of doctors from Liaoning to assist Tibet, and began their work, which was initially expected to last 18 months.

At first, just as she imagined, she found it difficult. "I had serious altitude sickness. I often felt dizzy, wanted to vomit and my limbs were weary and stiff. It was also difficult for me to sleep," says Zheng.

With its high altitude, Nagchu has low oxygen level and air pressure, which posed a challenge to Zheng. Luckily, she gradually got used to the environment and was able to continue her work.

She soon discovered the situation at work was totally different from what she was used to. Since Nagchu covers a vast territory with a sparse population, and Nagchu People's Hospital is the largest such facility in the northern part of Tibet, many patients traveled from afar to receive treatment.

"The long and tiring journeys often worsen their illness. When they arrive at our hospital, the condition of the patients has often deteriorated," says Zheng.

Consequently, it's more stressful than her usual work in Dalian treating children with mostly common ailments. "This situation requires us to have the ability to identify the disease and treat it as early as possible. The moment they arrive at the hospital, we must immediately carry out systematic treatment," says Zheng.

Moreover, she finds that local children often suffer from malnutrition, which is related to their dietary structure and local environment, especially the high altitude. That's quite different from her previous experience meeting many children worrying about obesity.

In Dalian, Zheng's job was centered around curing patients, but in Nagchu, she works as director of the pediatrics department of the hospital, and is more concerned about the development of the whole department, and what she can do to improve the health of local children.

"I try to impart some new treatment skills to local doctors. I will leave someday, but the advanced therapy knowledge can be left here to help them solve clinical problems and improve their ability to save patients who are in critical condition," says Zheng.

She contributed greatly to the establishment of a treatment center for critically ill children and newborns at the hospital, which is part of the National Health Commission's requirement to establish five types of first-aid centers in prefecture-level cities and counties.

In 2018, the commission issued a guideline requiring qualified medical institutions to establish centers for treating chest pain, stroke, trauma, critically ill pregnant women, children and newborns. As of July, there were more than 14,000 such centers all around the country, according to the commission.

Influenced by the environment, premature births are not rare in Nagchu, and newborns have a higher rate of disease related to a lack of oxygen. As a result, such a center, with specialized treatment, is necessary.

Zheng easily recalls her experience saving a newborn with severe jaundice in 2021. A young child was in serious danger of dying and needed an urgent exchange transfusion, a blood transfusion in which the patient's blood is removed and replaced by donated blood.

"I had my heart in my throat, and was wondering if we could save her. But, considering there was no time to send her to a hospital in Lhasa, capital of Tibet, where facilities and equipment are better, we had to try to save her ourselves.

"We quickly analyzed the situation, formed a plan, and got parental consent. I knew if we did not try, she had no chance of survival." she adds.

It was a long and tiring night. The surgery started at about 11 pm and ended at 3 am. None of the staff at the pediatrics department left. After blood transfusion, the child's vital signs became stable. Following treatment, over about 20 days, she successfully recovered and was discharged from hospital.

"Although the environment in Tibet is harsh, it seems children there have an amazing vitality," says Zheng.

"I see the process of children going from being in a coma to gradual recovery. Then they can breathe by themselves, drink milk, and smile. That endows me with a sense of fulfillment. It seems we grab them from the gate of death," she adds.

Back when Zheng was a medical student, she began to feel a sense of fulfillment in saving children, which led to her becoming a pediatrician. "Children are simple. They don't pretend to be ill. They cry and make noise when they feel uncomfortable, but with your treatment and care, they recover and continue laughing and playing happily. That process always impresses me," says Zheng.

After Zheng's tour of duty ended this year, with the persuasion of local people and her own wish to complete some unfinished work, she applied to stay for another term.

According to Jigme Dobje, another director of the pediatrics department of Nagchu People's Hospital, Zheng is easygoing and extremely hardworking. "Since she came here, she has done many things, including giving lectures and organizing instructive ward rounds, to help us improve our ability to treat patients. She has brought many new treatment methods, and manages our department well when I am off duty."

Zheng says, "Three years is neither long nor short. The local people are good, and local children are pure and innocent. Staying with them makes me feel peaceful. I feel grateful for this experience, which is totally different from what I have experienced in the past 30-odd years."