The Most Passionate Guarding of “Shanghai”, Triumphant Return of ICU Medical Team from Zhejiang Hospital Aiding Shanghai

Facing the epidemic, they are forging ahead against it

When you leave

It’s the most beautiful spring

When you come back

It has been the lively summer

The lotus flowers at the West Lake have been graceful and charming

We have waited your return

On June 17^th, 2022, they come back!

The ICU Medical Team of Zhejiang Hospital Aiding Shanghai went to Shanghai on April 17^th, and they returned to Hangzhou on June 17^th enduring hardships of the long journey, and they are the last medical team aiding Shanghai leaving the city. It has been two months since their departure, and it’s a period of impressive experiences.

Yan Jing, Party Secretary of Zhejiang Hospital, Chen Xinyu, Vice President of Zhejiang Hospital and other executives welcomed the team members. Yan Jing said, after nearly 60 days of hard work, the ICU Medical Team of Zhejiang Hospital Aiding Shanghai had accomplished their tasks excellently, they had reflected the due responsibilities of staff from Zhejiang Hospital, and had also displayed the style from the ICU medical staff of Zhejiang Hospital.

“An ICU medical team aiding Shanghai will be organized by Zhejiang Province......”, the team members only said one sentence, “Okay, no problem, we could, and we guarantee to accomplish the task.” while the leader was still on phone to notify about the news. In this way, the Medical Team Aiding Shanghai from Zhejiang Hospital rapidly assembled, and the team included two physicians, one respiratory doctor and six senior nurses, and then they went to Shanghai.

After arriving in Shanghai, six members of the medical team were assigned to two different hospitals, the members assigned to Lingang No.6 Hospital were Cao Feng, Zhu Zhenliang, Peng Jiaping and Zhang Qi, and all of them were ICU nurses, Zhu Xiaoting was a nurse from the Emergency Department, and the members assigned to the public hospitals were physicians Chen Shangzhong and Songjia from the Department of Critical Care Medicine, the respiratory doctor Liu Zichen and the nurse Xu Hongyan.

There were totally more than 80 ICU beds this time in Shanghai, and 5 ICU medical teams from the country were in charge of them. The ICU Medical Team from Zhejiang was in charge of 32 of them, and took care of the ICUs of two hospitals. They had been continuously on duty for more than 40 days and nights, and had totally received and treated 90 cases of ICU patients, with 4 ECMOs employed, including 2 cases of V-A ECMO, 1 case of V-V ECMO and 1 case of V-AV ECMO. 4 cases of percutaneous tracheotomy operations were conducted, more than 620 cases of ventilation in prone position, and nearly 4280 hours of bedside blood purification treatments. More than 280 cases of severe ultrasound evaluation, more than 135 cases of arteriovenous catheterization (including filter), 15 cases of chest drainage catheterization, and more than 20 cases of bronchoscopic alveolar lavage. Among them, more than 90% were elderly patients accompanied with serious basic diseases, the average age of the patients was 76.81 years, and the eldest patient was 96 years old. Meanwhile, they had achieved “zero infection” for all team members. The 9 medical team members from Zhejiang ICU Medical team of Zhejiang Hospital had won unanimous affirmation and praises from the team members and local  hospitals. “All the team members from Zhejiang Hospital were very excellent, all the candidates chosen were very outstanding and fabulous!”, and behind their excellence was their firm dedication, was their benevolence as a doctor, and was their determination in mind.

The party members were forging ahead at the front, there were totally 3 CPC party members in the ICU Medical Team aiding Shanghai, and in the process of aiding Shanghai, Cao Feng, Zhu Zhenliang, Zhang Qi and Zhu Xiaoting had submitted their applications to the Provisional Party Branch of the ICU Medical Team Aiding Shanghai, and they had displayed the due responsibilities of Zhejiang ICU medical staff with their actual actions.

1

Effectively work together to protect every life

They were all backbone members from the ICU of Zhejiang Hospital, and this time they went to where they were most needed.

“The Bed No.9 patient had the continuously deteriorating symptoms in circulation and oxygen, and after evaluation, the patient needed the ECMO treatment, and our ECMO team immediately went into the cabin”. After receiving the order, Chen Shangzhong, Song Jia and other several ECMO team members immediately assembled and arrived at the ICU of the public hospital-Shanghai Pudong New District as fast as possible.

This was a 44-year-old male COVID-19 patient who underwent a bone marrow transplant 2 months ago because of leukemia. After admission, his condition continued to deteriorate, and although after invasive mechanical ventilation, CRRT, prone position and other rescue measures, his hemodynamics remained unstable and multiple organ dysfunction occurred. It’s decided to use VA-ECMO treatment for him after team discussions.

Ultrasound evaluation of cardiopulmonary and target blood vessel puncture, disinfection, napkin laying, successful ultrasound-guided puncture, tube placement, preflushing, pipe connection, and ECMO operation. A series of processes were completed skillfully and orderly with the full cooperation of the team. “The patient's blood pressure increased and his oxygen saturation increased to 100%”, As the patient’s vital signs on the monitor gradually stabilized, everyone’s tension slowly settled down.

The success of ECMO on the computer was only the first step of treatment. The treatment of the primary disease, the management of ECMO and the prevention and treatment of complications are the next top priorities, as the core team members, Chen Shangzhong, Song Jia and Xu Hongyan participated in the rescue and treatment of this patient. In more than 20 days, the patient had experienced many difficulties, , such as cardiac tamponade, cardiogenic shock and infection, attributed to the hard efforts from team members day and night, the patient’s illness condition gradually improved, and finally successfully discharged from the ECMO.

Recalling the thrilling rescue, Chen Shangzhong said that the whole process around the heart and lung-based organ function management was successful, and this success was greatly attributed to the full cooperation of the entire team, including Zhejiang Province ICU Medical Team Aiding Shanghai, Shanghai Public Hospital Team, the National Supervision Team and the Logistics Department, etc.

The Respiratory Docgtor Liu Zichen and the nursing team had 9 tubes (VAV, distal perfusion tube, deep vein, blood filter tube, arterial tube, catheterization, mouth intubation, catheter), turning over, prone position, and transfer CT for comprehensive treatment.

“From the successful treatment process of this patient, it could be seen that this was a team of credit, and every excellent medical worker had formed an all-around team to play the role and strengths of everyone, and finally benefited the patient. This also made me feel that the same success of the entire epidemic treatment work was also the result of the joint efforts from the medical workers all over the country, the local medical workers and the staff from all over the country”, said Chen Shangzhong.

2

Offer them with love as family members

Different from nucleic acid sampling and makeshift medical teams, the intensive care medical teams were all faced with novel coronavirus infections with basic diseases and more serious diseases. In the ICU wards, there were all sounds from all kinds of instruments and equipment, and all the patients were fighting and struggling with the virus and the diseases.

Cao Feng was assigned to Lingang No.6 Hospital, the medical team quickly undertook the work receiving patients after arriving in Shanghai, and the 16 beds in charge were fully occupied within 3 days. The work was tight and the task was heavy.

He changed into his protective gown as usual and went into the cabin for his shift at 12 o’clock on May 9^th, the partners of the previous shift told him that Grandpa Yu (an alias) at Bed 32 missed his families very much, and he wrote a string of numbers and had called his families already.

At 15 o’clock, Grandpa Yu said he still had something to tell his families, Because Grandpa Yu was tracheostomy and lived with the pipe for more than ten years. When Cao Feng called the family members again, Grandpa blocked the casing with gauze to make a clearer sound, which made Cao Feng very impressed. So he thought of the innovative communication pattern during the epidemic prevention period at Zhejiang Hospital——“cloud video”, he picked up the grandpa’s mobile phone and said to his families, “Let me add your Wechat wiht my Work Wechat ID, thus you could use the video chat, you could see Grandpa Yu and he could see you as well”.

After connecting with the video phone, grandpa’s son and wife were at the other side of the phone, and they were also receiving treatment at the other designated hospital, grandpa’s wife were very excited with tears in her eyes, grandpa was excited as well, and at this moment the long departed families were just “in front of him”, the families were expressing their entrusts and concerns at the other end of the phone, while at this end grandpa expressed his miss of the families.

Such warm moments often occurred even in the intensive care unit closest to death, and precisely because it is closer to death, such warm moments become precious. Every ICU patient was not only facing the medical treatment for patients, but also facing their psychological treatment, “In the intensive care units, patients were very helpless. In addition to using various medical means, we also paid great attention to psychological counseling. Sometimes, a look, a patient inquiry, and a word of encouragement, could have a positive impact on patients”, said Xu Hongyan.

3

Racing with time, and fighting with death

Among COVID-19 patients in intensive care, the change of illness condition was like a roller coaster, with life and death in a flash. Whether the patients could be rescued back was a test of the medical team’s ability to provide precise treatment, especially for severe and critically ill patients, which needed accurate condition judgment and multidisciplinary cooperation for full treatment.

Reducing the case fatality rate is an important part of the tough battle against the epidemic, the ICU Medical Team from Zhejiang Hospital Aiding Shanghai was a “protector” of the ICU patients, and all the team members were protecting the life of every patient at every moment. Strengthening condition monitoring and nursing 24 hours a day, uninterrupted monitoring of patients’ heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, oxygen saturation, biochemical indicators, and strengthening duty guard and inspection. At midnight, the ICU group was still full of messages, transferring the information about illness condition changes from the patients, and it’s also the message of life.

The ICU “Shanghai” protectors were always racing with time, and were fighting with death, every tiny change of the patient’s condition, every emergency treatment was the critical treatment and MDT organ function accurate evaluation of critical patients, careful adjustment of the treatment plan and dedicated critical care, and they would made all their efforts to rescue as long as there was one tiny hope.

Protecting on the “epidemic road” was a responsibility and also a mission, the elderly patients’ change from danger into safety more quickly required high responsibility and proficient skills delivered by the professional teams in support and the delicate critical care.

Shouldering the critical care tasks, mission and responsibility made them jointly protect “Shanghai”, and everything done was for more and more beautiful lives!

Welcome home, our ICU team members who once protected “Shanghai”!

Welcome home, our ICU protectors!

Life is blossoming again because of you!

Edited by: Jing   Checked by: Jun

Source: ICU Medical Team from Zhejiang Hospital Aiding Shanghai

Compiled by: Wu Jing from Propaganda and United Front Work Department

This article is originally written by Zhejiang Hospital, please indicate the source “Zhejiang Hospital” service account for reprinting.

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