-- Relatives of COVID-19 patients in Hubei Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine present the medical team of Dongzhimen Hospital with a letter of thanks and silk banners
On the morning of May 26, 2020, Dongzhimen Hospital of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine received two silk banners and a special letter of thanks. The letter of thanks came from patients who had been cured of COVID-19 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, and paid tribute to the efforts of the medical team of Dongzhimen Hospital led by Professor Ye Yongan, to fight the epidemic in Wuhan.
COVID-19 shocked Wuhan at the end of 2019. Entrusted by the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Dongzhimen Hospital immediately set up a medical team and went to Wuhan, Hubei Province on the third day of the lunar New Year and entered and stationed in the Hubei Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine. This is the nearest hospital to South China's Seafood Market. Since the discovery of the first patient, Hubei Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine had been under great pressure to do its best to receive and treat the patient. The national medical team of TCM was stationed in the hospital, and the whole system was used to prepare for the sixth ward of respiratory severe disease. After accumulating a lot of experience in treating severe COVID-19 patients in the sixth ward of severe respiratory disease, Ye Yongan thought that we should go to the most dangerous places and solve the hardest problems as a national TCM medical team. On February 28, Ye led the key doctors of the medical team to make rounds of wards in the intensive care unit of Hubei Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, which was the first ward round of traditional Chinese medicine in the ICU of the Hospital.
Two silk banners and a letter of thanks were sent by a relative of a patient surnamed Meng in intensive care unit. Meng, female, 77 years old, was admitted to the ICU of COVID-19 on March 3 due to severe pneumonia. With hypertension, diabetes and other basic diseases, the patient was admitted to ICU for endotracheal intubation and ventilator assisted breathing, suffering cardiac arrest on the day of admission. After cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the patient was in a deep coma with severe infection. Ye Yongan led the core doctors into the ICU for three times to make rounds of TCM for the patients and treat patients by syndrome differentiation and four diagnosis for reference with TCM according to the patients' conditions. After seven days of medication, the patient regained consciousness and successfully extubated and removed ventilator, and was discharged after gradually stabilizing. Because the patient had a long time of illness and had experienced cardiac arrest, the cardiopulmonary function was greatly affected. In order to consolidate the effect of early treatment and prevent relapse, Ye Yongan insisted on TCM consolidation treatment for patients.
Now, the patient, who had been struggling on the line of life and death, has gradually recovered his cardiopulmonary function without related complications and has completely returned to his family life. The patient's daughter who lived with her mother was in another hospital with pneumonia during her mother's COVID-19 illness. Both mother and daughter are now recovering at home. During the special period, Ye Yongan's team were determined not to abandon or give up on any patient, which deeply touched the mother and daughter. Due to the epidemic outbreak, they couldn't come to Beijing to express thanks to Ye Yongan and his team, they asked their friends to express thanks instead. The friend also read the thank-you letter in person to express their gratitude to the medical team for treating patients with severe diseases and saving people's lives in Wuhan.
Ye and some members of the medical team received the pennants and the letter of thanks. "It is the duty of doctors to heal the wounded and rescue the dying," Ye said. "Since we choose to head for the frontline, we will not give up every patient." The patients' recovery had given their families and medical staff confidence in treating them, which brought medical workers more courage and strength to cure more patients.
It was reported that the National TCM medical team participated in the treatment of 103 COVID-19 patients in Wuhan, Hubei Province, and all received TCM treatment. Among them, there were 7 critically-ill patients and 80 severe patients, with an effective rate of 92.5%. In order to consolidate the therapeutic effect, the medical team established a rehabilitation following-up WeChat group for COVID-19 patients to provide treatment services. Three elderly critically-ill patients had fully recovered and then they were discharged from hospital after remote treatment by the medical team.
