Medical officer brings hope to quake victims
Updated: 2013-05-29 17:07
By Liyu and Peng Chao reported in Chengdu (chinadaily.com.cn)
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Yao Rong and four team members carry Ran Xiaoli, a 28-year-old pregnant woman, to the temporary landing spot for a rescue helicopter in Taiping middle school. |
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A team member checks the condition of Luo Qiying, a 71-year-old leper with deformed limbs and a blind left eye. |
Yao analyzed the situation and immediately made a decision to call a helicopter for help, informing the General Hospital in Chengdu to prepare for treatment.
At 8:50 that morning, Yao and four team members carried the woman with a door plank to the temporary landing point for the rescue helicopter in Taiping middle school.
"Please make sure the mother and baby are safe," Yao said to the two members escorting the woman before the helicopter took off at 10:00am.
The baby was born without issue at 8:41 that night.
Yao started to make a round of visits to the 3,000 families in the six villages of Taiping beginning April 25, after most of the victims coming to the medical station in town had been properly treated.
He came across a special patient in Chunguang village, also known by nearby villagers as "leprosy village", as the village was a place to quarantine lepers in the 1960s. Although the disease is no longer incurable, the nearby villagers are still afraid to go to the village.
"I might never come to the village if I hadn't had to lead you to it," said Li Xianhai, a doctor of Taiping Township Health Center, who has been a doctor for 33 years.
Luo Qiying, the 71-year-old leper, whose limbs are deformed and left eye is blind, had a cataract in her right eye. She couldn't close her right eye even when sleeping.
Her family only asked to help stop the pain, but Yao insisted on taking the old woman to Chengdu for treatment.
"Her hands and feet are all disabled, and her left eye is blind. What a terrible life it will be if her right eye goes blind too? " Yao said.
Luo was sent to the General Hospital on May 1. The hospital performed an operation to remove her left eye and stitch her right eye on May 7. The hospital would perform cataract surgery on Luo three months later.
Yao's mother was hospitalized one day before the Lushan earthquake hit. However, Yao went to the hardest-hit area right after the quake without hesitation.
He has stayed in Taiping for more than one month, having no time going back to look after his mother.
Yao wasn't able to get in contact with his mother until four days after the quake.
"No worries," his mother comforted him on the telephone. "You will help more victims with your team."
"I had to sacrifice my own family for the greater good of the quake victims," Yao said. "This is my responsibility as a soldier."