The picture shows the medical team of Mongolian children with congenital heart disease in China. (Data map) Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region People's Hospital courtesy of the picture
Hohhot, China News Network, April 28 Title: The "Angel" of Children with Congenital Heart Disease in Mongolia: Transnational Protection of "Heart" Birth
China News Network reporter Zhang Wei
"Although the COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted our continued journey to Mongolia for free medical treatment, we will still follow up with the families of some of the children who have undergone surgery before through WeChat." Recently, Li Wei, director of the Cardiovascular Surgery Department of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region People's Hospital, took out his mobile phone and told reporters the story of his 30 years of medical practice and children with congenital heart disease (hereinafter referred to as congenital heart disease) in Mongolia.
Born in 1968, Li Wei has been working in cardiac surgery since graduating from university in the early 1990s. For 30 years, he said, he was a witness to the rapid progress of China's cardiac surgery.
"When I first started working, a lot of cardiac surgery couldn't be done." Li Wei said that moreover, some diseases have only been overcome in the past ten years.
"For example, aortic dissection, this disease develops very dangerously, and may be fatal within 3 days." 20 years ago, there were very few doctors in China who could perform this operation. Li Wei gave an example to reporters, but now, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region People's Hospital, as the only unit in Inner Mongolia that can independently carry out this operation, can probably do more than 100 cases a year.
The rapid development of medical technology in China benefits patients at home and abroad. With the smooth implementation of the "Belt and Road" construction, in 2017, the Red Cross Foundation of China launched the Angel Tour in Hohhot - the "Belt and Road" Humanitarian Assistance Plan for Children with Serious Diseases in Mongolia, and the People's Hospital of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was identified as one of the four designated hospitals in China to treat children with congenital heart disease in Mongolia, fully participating in the screening of children with congenital heart disease in Mongolia and the reception of surgical treatment in China.
Li Wei led the cardiovascular surgical team known as "Grassland Anzhen" to start the "angel journey" to rescue children with congenital heart disease in Mongolia.
Li Wei told reporters that from 2017 to 2019, the team went to Mongolia for three consecutive years to screen a total of thousands of children. "We have successfully treated more than 70 cases. The youngest is 4 months and the oldest is 17 years old. ”
Li Wei also clearly remembers that when groups of special small patients arrived in Inner Mongolia after a 25-hour long journey on an international special train, in order to allow the children to quickly adapt to the local environment, the hospital carefully arranged special wards and equipped them with Mongolian-speaking medical staff. "Even the canteen customizes meals for them."
In just ten days, these children suffering from congenital heart disease, under the skillful treatment, close supervision and meticulous care of cardiac surgery medical staff, their physical functions gradually returned to normal and regained their "heart" life.
"We have been following up after the operation and the children are recovering well." Li Wei nodded his head in relief.
Infographic. The picture shows Li Wei auscultated for a child with congenital heart disease in Mongolia. Courtesy of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region People's Hospital
Although many years have passed, Li Wei still remembers that the first time he went to Mongolia to screen out a 2-year-old child with complex congenital heart disease, the next year after the operation, when he went to Mongolia with the team for free clinics again, the child and his family rushed to Ulaanbaatar from more than 300 kilometers away to thank him in person.
Li Wei told reporters that an American expert also examined the child and asked him where the operation was done, he said in Inner Mongolia, China. American doctors praised: "Very good!" ”
In the process of treating children with congenital heart disease in Mongolia, Li Wei found that in Mongolia, the incidence of congenital heart disease is relatively high, and the overall incidence of complex congenital heart disease is high.
"In our country, due to the prevention of congenital heart disease level 3 protection, prenatal examination, newborn physical examination and so on, the prevention work has been done very well at the grass-roots level." Therefore, the overall incidence of our congenital heart disease is decreasing, and the complex congenital heart disease is gradually decreasing. Li Wei said.
Li Wei said that the belief that he has always adhered to the front line of cardiac surgery is his love for this profession. Today, he still performs an average of 10 surgeries a week, up to five or six a day, and up to 8 hours.
"After the operation every day, although I am very tired, lying in bed to review the operation process is my habit for many years, thinking that the operation was successful and successful, I am very satisfied and happy." Li Wei told reporters that for him, every patient is like a "work", and it is his greatest achievement to be able to "do" every patient well.
In Li Wei's heart, over the years of practicing medicine, the "Angel Journey" is like a flower of hope sown out, beautiful and gorgeous. "I will continue to persist in the treatment of children with congenital heart disease in Mongolia." (End)