a shanghai doctor saves lives and makes medical services smarter at the foot of mount qomolangma-凯发网

a shanghai doctor saves lives and makes medical services smarter at the foot of mount qomolangma

source: beijing review| published: 2021-08-19

yue mengchen, the son of a doctor,  refused to hand in his father’s day homework because it was not a  poster with the latest photo starring him being with his father, as  required, but a photoshopped image showing them together. the 7-year-old  burst into tears and said, “it's different. when will daddy be home?”  

his father, yue fei, is a deputy  chief surgeon from shanghai-based ruijin hospital. he volunteered to  serve at the xigaze people’s hospital, in the tibet autonomous region,  for three years as part of a medical partnership assistance program to  help the region grow. xigaze, situated at the foot of mount qomolangma,  is 4,215 km away from home.  

the boy didn't know that his  father is working on the plateau to help consolidate the poverty  alleviation results. tibet had already shaken off extreme poverty by the  end of 2019, yet, “families who have just risen above the poverty line  are more likely to slip back into poverty because of illness,” yue fei  said. 

  

yue fei (center) conducts minimally invasive surgery at the xigaze people's  hospital in tibet autonomous region on march 26, 2021 (courtesy photo)

doctor braids 

since the 1990s, medical workers  from renowned hospitals across the nation have been signed up to work in  tibet to accelerate the development of medical and health services in  the region. since shanghai teamed up with xigaze, the second largest  city in the region, doctors from the metropolis have taken turns to work  in xigaze for stints of one or three years. 

yue fei is one of them. his tenure  lasts from july 2019 to july 2022, during which he acts as both a  leading surgeon and vice president of xigaze people's hospital in charge  of training, advanced technology application and staff performance  assessment.  

xigaze is a city with an average  altitude of 4,000 meters. the lack of oxygen poses a challenge to yue  fei and his colleagues. “when we climb up a flight of stairs or walk a  little faster, the heart beats faster too, like it does on a first  date,” he said, adding that it is hypoxia that makes the heartbeat  accelerate. 

what’s worse, hypoxia makes  surgery in xigaza much more energy consuming than in shanghai. “we are  called doctor braids because when we do surgery, both the patient and  the surgeon are on oxygen. without additional oxygen, our brains can  become slow at critical times,” yue fei said.  

although occupied by a load of  administrative work as a vice president of the hospital, yue fei loves  being in surgery. “i always keep my surgical cap on my desk because i  might be needed for an emergency operation at any time,” he said. after  coming to tibet, he has saved more than 100 lives in emergency  surgeries. 

saving lives aside, training young  tibetan doctors features high on yue fei’s agenda. before 2019, local  surgeons in xigaze people’s hospital could only conduct laparoscopic or  “minimally invasive” surgery on the gall bladder. today, two of yue  fei’s students have mastered the technique for gastrointestinal and  liver surgeries. “i hope that after three years, local doctors in tibet  can conduct complicated surgeries and manage the more difficult cases  just like their counterparts in shanghai can,” he said. 

 

yue fei and his family in lhasa on august 4, 2020 (courtesy photo)

smarter medical care 

it was a september afternoon in  2020. a patient named padma showed up at the emergency ward of gyangze  county people’s hospital, 91 km southeast of xigaze. he had been  coughing and experiencing bouts of cold sweats for two days. an  electrocardiogram (ekg) was done and the image was sent to xigaza  people’s hospital via an ekg cloud system in real time. “it’s an acute  myocardial infarction,” peng wenhui, a doctor in xigaze diagnosed. peng  is a cardiologist from shanghai tenth people’s hospital. he came to  work in the plateau for one year. after consulting with multiple  cardiologists, a green channel was opened to transfer the patient to  xigaza for surgery. two hours later, the patient’s life was no longer on  the line. 

according to yue fei, besides three leading experts whose tenure is three years,  shanghai sends a 20-member-strong medical team to xigaze people’s  hospital every year to assist in local development. for the 10 key  departments, such as general surgery, experts are sent to offer their  medical services on an annual basis. for smaller departments or  critically ill patients, doctors in shanghai will assist via the remote  consultation system. robots and cloud computing applications are used by  the hospital to connect doctors and patients in shanghai and xigaze. 

yue fei and his team, as of 2020,  had built an assortment of cloud data banks, which stores all medical  images of the xigaze people’s hospital and all electrocardiographs of  five county-level hospitals in the city. the ekg cloud system is one of  the data banks. doctors in shanghai, xigaze and five counties including  gyangze can access the data banks via cellphones and tablets and make a  diagnosis as soon as possible.  

in addition, since 2018, patients  and doctors in xigaze alike can video-chat with doctors in shanghai via a  robot system, and their medical history can be shared in real time.  tashi chozin, a pediatrician at xigaze people’s hospital, is a  beneficiary of the system. when she has a problematic case or critically  ill patient, she will contact the shanghai team in real time. most of  them have worked in xigaze for some time. “thanks to the introduction of  the robot system, doctors in shanghai can now answer our questions and  teach us directly. it’s very convenient for all of  us tibetan doctors  and patients,” she told beijing review. 

"without leaving xigaze, patients  can receive the best medical treatment from shanghai. not everyone can  afford to get on a flight. besides, some patients are too ill to endure  the long journey," yue fei said. 

an absent father 

working on the plateau does come  with another “side effect” for yue fei—he has become more emotional when  thinking about his son, he said. he was a strict father, who would  discipline his son and seldom show any emotion at home. “my boy was kind  of afraid of me,” the 40-year-old said. 

when yue fei left shanghai, his  son had just finished kindergarten. “he will be a fourth grader when my  tenure finishes. at the most critical stage in a boy’s formation, yet i,  as a father, cannot be there with him,” yue fei explained.  

in the first few months following  his father’s departure to tibet, the little boy tended to wake up in the  middle of the night and cry. his dad would then video call him to  comfort the young broken heart.  

“my son couldn’t understand why i  left for tibet,” yue fei said. he tried to explain it to him in the  simplest way possible. he told the boy that patients in tibet before had  to get big incisions when undergoing surgery. now, with doctors who can  do minimally invasive surgery all the way from shanghai, they just need  to get a few tiny holes, and can be on their way home again the next  day. “isn’t that a wonderful thing?” yue fei asked his son. the boy  nodded.  

however, when his first father’s  day being apart from his father came around on june 21, 2020, the young  boy’s tears welled up again. it was days after the galwan valley clash  between china and india in mid-june 2020. yue fei asked his son, “if our  soldiers are injured, who can help them?” he then continued, “working  in tibet, dad is not only a doctor, but also a soldier, a soldier  wearing a white coat instead camouflage.”  

the boy understood. when he  visited his father in xigaze in august 2020 for seven days, his father  was busy for half of the week he was there. the boy declined an  invitation to a two-day tour around nearby scenic spots. instead, he  stayed in his father’s dormitory, killing time by reading. why? “if i  were to go sightseeing, i would not be able to be with my dad for days,”  the boy said. yue fei’s heart melted upon hearing his son utter those  words.  

"our emotional bond is now stronger than ever,”"he concluded.

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