Medicine knows no borders, and doctors share their benevolence. The 17th batch of Chinese (Shandong) Medical Team Assisting Seychelles has successfully completed its two-year foreign aid mission. During this period, under the guidance of the National Health Commission and the Health Commission of Shandong Province, as well as the direct care and leadership of the Chinese Embassy in Seychelles and the Economic and Commercial Counselor’s Office, the entire medical team united as one and practiced boundless love.
As one of the medical team members, I am honored that I have worked hard, made contributions to the successful completion of this foreign aid mission, and achieved self-improvement and transcendence. The memories are still alive, and my initial attention remains unchanged. Now I write down my growth experience over the past two years.
Accept comprehensive training to be fully prepared
Foreign Aid Medical Team Members Participating in Training at Shandong Medical College
Training in Nanjing in May 2018
On March 19, 2018, the Health Commission of Shandong Province organized an intensive and off-the-job training for 6 members consisting of the 17th batch of Medical Team Assisting Seychelles. The training lasted for half a year and covered politics, ideology, culture, language, physical fitness and life. During this period, the International Health Exchange and Cooperation Center NHC PRC (IHECC) organized a two-week training course for leaders, translators, and accounting personnel in the foreign aid medical team on May 7 of the same year.
The 17th Batch of Medical Team Assisting Seychelles Setting Off on the afternoon of September 14, 2018
After comprehensive training, our team members strengthened their confidence and ability, and were fully prepared. On September 14, 2018, the 17th batch of Chinese (Shandong) Medical Team Assisting Seychelles set off smoothly. The flight departed from Beijing Capital International Airport at 11 p.m., and finally arrived at Seychelles Airport at 2:30 p.m. of local time on September 15 via the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa and transferred.
Keep the mission in mind, and hold firm ideological commitment
When we first arrived, we strived to overcome all kinds of differences and difficulties in language, life, and working environment. Although far away from the motherland, there has never been a slight negligence on our ideological and political studies. Guided by the major policies of the Communist Party of China, we actively cooperated with Chinese diplomatic strategy to assist the implementation of the China-proposed Belt and Road initiative and continuously enriched the connotation and extension of foreign medical assistance. While doing the job of our own well, we paid attention to publicizing the Chinese medical team and spreading the Chinese voice actively.
First Party Lecture of the 17th batch of Medical Team Assisting Seychelles After Arriving in Seychelles
Away from our motherland, we have always keeping in mind strong communist ideals and beliefs, as well as a strong sense of national pride and mission at all times. We always remind ourselves that as a communist in the new era, we must never forget our original intention and keep our mission in mind. Under the strong leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, by bravely taking responsibilities, forging ahead, and working hard, we must be resolute in completing every task and work entrusted by the motherland and the people, and contribute to the great foreign aid medical cause of China.
Be diligent in business and build a solid foundation for service
In terms of medical work, due to the extreme shortage of local doctors in Seychelles, the work intensity at the Seychelles Hospital was quite intensive. With doctors of many different nationalities working together, and difficulties to adapt to different work habits and business exchanges, we were faced with unimaginable work pressure and difficulty. It occurred to me that under such circumstance, I must adjust myself quickly to adapt to the local working environment, strive to overcome all difficulties in all aspects, and give full play to the business and technical advantages of the foreign aid medical team.
Yang Yuhai at Work
The Imaging Center of the Seychelles Hospital runs the imaging examinations of all patients and all kinds of people applying for the physical examination throughout the country, which covers not only outpatients and emergency patients of the Seychelles Hospital, but also patients from community hospitals, outpatient clinics and private clinics. As a result, there are numerous people applying for examinations every day at the Imaging Center, and piling-up report workload. However, the imaging diagnosis physician is in extreme shortage, and there is only one imaging diagnosis physician, who is in full charge of 100-150 X-ray examination reports per day, as well as contrast examination of the digestive tract concurrently from time to time, and on-duty shifts every three days. At each on-duty shift, this physician also needs to handle the ultrasound examination and CT report of the emergency treatment during the on-duty period.
During the two years of assisting Seychelles, I have completed a total of 45,244 X-ray examination reports, 1,798 ultrasound examinations, 976 CT and MR examination reports, and 194 times of 24-hour “first on call” duties. Due to a failure of the report printing system, all imaging reports were handwritten in the first year after arriving in Seychelles. Immediately after the launching of the new His and Ris system in the Seychelles Hospital on September 1, 2019, I established and improved the report templates for common clinical diseases, frequently-occurring diseases and some special imaging signs in the imaging report terminal. As a result, the accuracy of printing imaging reports was improved rapidly, the issuing imaging reports was accelerated, and the period for patients to get imaging reports was significantly shortened. In medical work, I have always been adhering to due diligence and persistent improving, and have actively communicated with colleagues of other nationalities. The excellent professional quality and professionalism of our Chinese doctors demonstrated in our medical practice have been unanimously recognized and praised by the Seychelles Hospital, as well as counterparts and patients. During this process, my professional English and business skills have also been further improved. At the same time, by taking the opportunity of serving as a part-time cashier in the medical team, I completed self-improvement, broadened my knowledge and work experience, and strengthened my sense of responsibility and self-confidence. Furthermore, I was rated as the Outstanding Accountant in the two annual assessments of the foreign aid medical team.
Committed to responsibility and protect the health of compatriots
Members of Chinese (Shandong) Medical Team Assisting Seychelles Visiting Chinese Hospitalized Patients
All foreign aid medical teams that ever dispatched overseas have undertaken the health care work for the staff of Chinese embassies, institutions, Chinese-invested enterprises and overseas Chinese in the country where they are dispatched to. This is not only a tradition of the foreign aid medical team, but also a responsibility. At present, besides the Chinese Embassy, the Economic and Commercial Counselor’s Office, the Confucius Institute, the medical team and other foreign-related institutions, there are also branches or project departments of groups in Seychelles, such as CNQC International, Shenyang Construction, Sinohydro Corporation, Huashan Construction, Hunan NO.6 Engineering, most of which are undertaking the construction projects in Seychelles aided by China.
On January 7, 2019, after 16:00 p.m. of local time in Seychelles, I finished my busy work at Victoria Hospital, and was preparing to get off work. A Chinese patient with a painful expression, accompanied by the radiology registrar, hurriedly came to me for help, and I, through inquiries, knew that this patient, Mr. He, a seaman from Henan Province, Chin, had been waiting in the emergency room for nearly an afternoon without any treatment due to language barriers. I tried to calm him down by telling him that I was a member of the Chinese Foreign Aid Medical Team and working in the Seychelles Hospital, and there was no need for him to be worried and anxious. Unexpectedly, he burst into tears when he saw a Chinese doctor in the hospital, as if he saw his relatives.
Mr. He said that he suffered from sudden breathing difficulties during offshore operations the day before yesterday. Due to his serious illness, the fishing boat urgently changed its course and arrived in Seychelles this morning. The local agent in Seychelles took him to the hospital. Since he had suffered asphyxia in the boat for twice and he failed to express his symptoms due to poor language communication and breathing difficulties, he got even more worried about his illness. After simply asking about the patient’s condition and symptoms, I initially suspected that the patient had acute epiglottitis and felt that his condition was critical. I hurriedly contacted Li Zhiyuan of the medical team to report the situation and sought for treatment plans. At the same time, I immediately performed an X-ray examination for the patient. The lateral image of the neck showed that the patient had obvious swollen epiglottis, which was consistent with the diagnosis of acute epiglottitis. After confirming the diagnosis, I took Mr. He back to the Emergency Department, contacted the otolaryngologist on duty, exchanged the patient’s condition, gave the patient an intravenous infusion, and transferred him into the ward for treatment in time. Mr. He’s condition was quickly controlled and relieved, and his mood was gradually stabilized. A week later, he recovered and was discharged from the hospital. As he left to bid farewell, Mr. He was overwhelmed with gratitude. He highlighted that the credit that he was rescued by Chinese medical team when he suffered from an attack of severe illness in Africa, thousands of miles away from China, shall be given to our medical team and the increasing powerful motherland.
The Medical Team Assisting Seychelles Participating in the Rescue of Workers of A Chinese Construction Company in Seychelles Who Were Injured in the Car Accident
At around 6:30 on the morning of February 20, 2019, a truck, registered to a Chinese construction company, with 21 construction workers and 1 driver mainly from China and Bangladesh on board, rolled over on a road near the Seychelles Industrial Zone. All people were injured to different degree. After receiving the rescue request from the construction company, Li Zhiyuan urgently gathered me and Liu Zhonghao from the Traumatic Orthopedics Department, who were on the night shift, and the acupuncturists Lu Shiyou and Cheng Bin, who were about to work, to the Seychelles Hospital to provide assistance. The wounded were sent to the emergency room by ambulances one by one. Due to the large number of the wounded and relatively in-shortage of doctors, Liu Zhonghao assisted in checking the wounds, performing debridement and suture, wound treatment, etc., I was responsible for emergency imaging examinations to exclude possible serious fractures and organ injuries, and Li Zhiyuan, the team leader, was in charge of negotiating with the hospital and reporting the situation. Considering the difficulty of Chinese workers in communicating in English, Lu Shiyou and Cheng Bin acted as temporary interpreters to inform the attending doctor of the Chinese wounded’s condition in time. Luckily, only one Chinese worker was in a coma, but no obvious organ damage was found after imaging examination, which meant that he needed to be hospitalized for observation. Most of the other wounded were mildly injured. After initial debridement, suture and other medical treatments, they were apparently in good health, but they needed to stay in the hospital to further clarify the injury and prevent accidents. It was not until noon that the rescue work of the medical team ended. In this emergency rescue, our medical team provided assistance to the Chinese construction company, won respect with its superb technologies, solidarity and cooperation, and fulfilled its promise of medical assistance of ensuring the safety of personnel in Chinese-funded institutions.
The Medical Team Offering Free Clinical Treatment and Dispensing Commonly Used drugs at the Construction Sites of CNQC International During the Lunch Break
The Medical Team Providing Free Clinical Treatment for the Technical Group of Chinese Navy for Assisting Seychelles and Learning Politics Together
All members of the 17th batch of Medical Team Assisting Seychelles used the lunch break of working days to go to the construction sites of CNQC International to provide medical assistance and guidance to Chinese and foreign workers working on the construction sites, as well as convenient and commonly used medicines. According to the plan and arrangement, the medical team conducted free clinical treatment for Chinese construction companies in Seychelles one by one in their off-duty hours. Such free clinical treatment aimed to get a preliminary understanding of the health status of the Chinese staff of the construction company and provide corresponding health guidance based on their own health conditions. If necessary, medication or acupuncture and other treatments would be offered targeting at individual situations to ensure their physical and mental health during their work in Seychelles.
On May 1, 2019, the second free clinical treatment of a series of free clinical treatment for Chinese institutions and Chinese-funded enterprises in Seychelles was held, and the medical team came to project department site in Seychelles of Huashan Construction Company to conduct free clinical treatment at the Labor Day Holiday ,carried out health examinations and offered guidance for the company’s employees, gave detailed answers to some health problems and doubts based on their professional knowledge. After the free clinical treatment, the medical team donated some of the commonly used medicines for self-use to the Huashan Construction.
Shoulder the responsibilities as warriors in the face of the epidemic
The Medical Team Donating Epidemic Prevention Supplies to Chinese-Funded Enterprises During the Outbreak of Epidemic
The tourism industry is a pillar industry in Seychelles, and most tourists come from Europe. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 in Europe, imported patients with the COVID-19 also appeared in Seychelles. As of the end of March 2020, there had been 10 cases, and the first patient with no clear contact history has appeared, who was a ground crew of the local airport. The local epidemic prevention department researched and concluded that there was a community infection in Seychelles, so the government decided to ban flights temporarily from March 20. Due to the impact of the worldwide epidemic, air express delivery was temporarily suspended, and many medical supplies for rescue were stagnated and failed to be transported to Seychelles. The first batch of epidemic prevention supplies for the Chinese Embassy in Seychelles was detained in Hong Kong, and all epidemic prevention supplies for Chinese companies in Seychelles were also tarried. Because all local medical supplies were imports, all urgently-needed supplies such as N95 masks on the market were urgently requisitioned by the government. General surgical masks, forehead thermometers, hand disinfectants and other epidemic prevention supplies on the market were all out of stock. Air transport of supplies was also stagnated. The Chinese embassy in Seychelles and Chinese companies had no access to protective equipment against the epidemic. Everyone was very nervous and panicked. Fortunately, on March 18, before the ban on flights to Seychelles, the first batch of protective equipment urgently airlifted to the medical team by the National Health Commission arrived in Seychelles. Taking into account the emergency situation, the medical team entrusted the local agency company to urgently handle customs clearance procedures, and the epidemic prevention supplies were smoothly transported to the medical team on March 21. Upon hearing this information, the Chinese Embassy, Chinese companies and overseas Chinese in Seychelles applied to the medical team for material assistance. In view of the urgency of the situation, the medical team members unanimously decided to donate part of the supplies. An emergency team meeting was held on March 26 to discuss the distribution plan of the supplies. Considering that the medical team was a high-risk group, the limited conditions of the local hospital, community infection, unknown follow-up situation, and the stagnated transportation of materials, the medical team decided to divide all materials into three parts, with one part for the Chinese Embassy, Chinese companies and overseas Chinese in Seychelles, the second part for its own use of the medical team, and the third part for emergency reserves for Chinese in Seychelles in case of any special circumstances. After the medical team reported the donation plan to the Embassy, the Chinese Embassy in Seychelles held a meeting of the party committee urgently on March 27, and approved the plan. Then, the Embassy notified the Chinese-funded enterprises in Seychelles to receive epidemic prevention supplies from the medical team at 12:30 on March 28. In order to reduce contact during the epidemic, they decided to take advantage of the short lunch break to distribute the first batch of the donated materials in the yard in advance. At noon of March 28, all team members, with no time for lunch, gathered at 12:00 at the site and placed the donated materials well in place. At 12:30, staff of the Chinese Embassy in Seychelles, the Seychelles Branch of CNQC International Construction Company, the Seychelles Branch of Shenyang International Construction Company, the Seychelles Project Department of Huashan International Construction Company, the Seychelles Project Department of Sinohydro Corporation, the Seychelles Project Department of Hunan NO.6 Engineering and Saifu Construction Company came to the medical team successively to receive supplies. Everyone expresses their sincere thanks to the medial team for the successful arrival of epidemic prevention supplies from China and timely donation at the outbreak of the epidemic in Seychelles. They highly praised the medical team as the Guardian of Life and Health, and had a deep feeling of strong China, as well as the care from people at home for the personnel abroad.
Even though the Seychelles government had adopted very strict prevention and control measures, there were still positive cases of COVID-19 brokenly. It was just after the Spring Festival, and some Chinese had just returned to Seychelles from China. Chinese in Seychelles inevitably experienced varying degrees of tension and panic. The medical team has undertaken its indispensable responsibility for epidemic consultation, information release, screening of suspected personnel and other tasks. Thanks to all efforts of institutions and Chinese in Seychelles, no new positive cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed among Chinese in Seychelles till now. As of mid-September, more than 140 positive cases had been found in Seychelles. Even though most of them were imported cases, it had inevitably caused some panic in the work and life of the local people. In this case, all members of the medical team overcame all kinds of difficulties, and stuck to the front line of the medical work. While doing well in personal protection, we also provided epidemic prevention propaganda and explanations for colleagues and patients in the Seychelles Hospital, which well demonstrated the image and responsibility of our foreign aid medical team.
Guo Wei, the Chinese Ambassador to Seychelles, and He Fang, the Head of the Economic and Commercial Counselor’s Office, Coming to See Off the 17th Batch of Medical Team Assisting Seychelles
The two-year term of the 17th batch of Chinese (Shandong) Medical Team Assisting Seychelles ended in mid-September 2020. We completed the foreign aid mission successfully. On September 25, we flew directly from Seychelles to Changsha. A total of 71 people including medical team members, company technical workers, Chinese and overseas Chinese stranded in Seychelles, returned to China safely.
Through two years of foreign aid experience, I have strengthened my ideals and beliefs, tempered my mind and will, and enhanced my business capabilities. In the future medical work, I will continue to carry forward the spirit of the Chinese foreign aid medical team of “being fearless of hardships, willing to contribute, healing the wounded and rescuing the dying, and showing the boundless love”, and continue to work hard to improve the health of the people.
{Author: Yang Yuhai; Source: Human Resources Department; Editor: Publicity Department/News Center}