Hospital emergency departments, surgery rooms operating despite pandemic
Emergency departments at local hospitals in Shanghai are working overtime to keep up with a steady stream of patients amid the recent surge in COVID-19 cases.
Xinhua Hospital said it has received 40 to 50 ambulances every day this month. Its newborn children diagnosis and rescue center has voluntarily transported 25 newborns in critical condition, including six from communities or hospitals that have been locked down through ambulances with negative air pressure.
The hospital cited the case of a French newborn baby who was transported to Xinhua from a local maternity hospital on March 15 with serious congenital heart disease. Emergency surgery was conducted that night, and the baby is currently in stable condition.
The hospital's emergency department, as well as chemotherapy and radiation services for both adult and child patients and hemodialysis service for those with kidney failure are all working, hospital officials revealed.
A 3-year-old girl was rushed by ambulance from Chongming District to Xinhua last Friday – the third hospital she visited for treatment. Suffering from serious nose bleeding and low hemoglobin, the girl's condition had deteriorated since early March.
After arriving at Xinhua, her condition continued to worsen. Following treatment and consultation with other experts, doctors concluded the girl had acute leukemia.
With a treatment regimen that included chemotherapy and hemodialysis, the girl's condition has now stabilized.
Doctors have been treating emergency patients regardless of whether they have had nucleic acid tests.
Xinhua said a 33-year-old pregnant woman from a locked-down community recently arrived at its emergency department with stomach pain. Doctors wore protective gear while treating her because she didn't have a negative PCR report.
To save the woman's life, doctors arranged a PCR test while sending her to an operation room with negative air pressure to carry out surgery immediately. Doctors found serious bleeding inside the belly cavity, confirming the woman suffered ovarian pregnancy, a rare type of ectopic pregnancy.
The woman was in stable condition after surgery.
Medical staff are sleeping in the hospital to ensure there's enough manpower round the clock, Xinhua officials revealed.
A patient in critical condition at Xinhua Hospital's emergency department.
A newborn baby in critical condition is transported to Xinhua Hospital.
Heart transplant
Ruijin Hospital, meanwhile, managed to solve all difficulties amid the COVID-19 resurgence to do a successful heart transplant surgery on a patient on Sunday.
The patient contacted the hospital for treatment for terminal heart failure. Ruijin promised to do its best to save the patient.
When the patient arrived at the hospital, doctors found he had suffered heart-related shock, kidney failure and lung infection. His condition was extremely critical.
At the ICU, a total of five life-supporting ECMO systems, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, were in operation to prolong his life. Multiple teams gathered to renovate organ functions ahead of a heart transplant.
Usually, the duration for ECMO is only two weeks – which means patients can die if they don't receive a donated organ within two weeks.
The hospital put the patient on the list of China's organ transplant system. It prepared different traffic plans to take and transport back the organ because the life duration of a heart after leaving the body is only six hours.
"We prepared various contingency plans, such as if flights are canceled due to pandemic, and prepared different routes like railways and ambulance," said Zhao Qiang, vice president of Ruijin. "Despite the many troubles and difficulties, we were not willing to give up on the patient."
Good news came soon enough as the system informed Ruijin about a matched organ.
The hospital sent staff to another province to harvest the organ and the Shanghai Medical Emergency Center managed to prepare an ambulance to transport the precious heart to Ruijin.
The operation room was already in full swing when the heart arrived at the hospital. The organ was put into the patient's body at 5pm, and it started to beat 31 minutes later, indicating the success of the 4-hour surgery.
The patient is now off the life-support system and is recovering well, Ruijin said.
The heart transplant surgery at Ruijin Hospital.
