Wu Tianyi at work. Photo by Zhang Peng
Editor's note
In recent years, with the deepening of plateau medical research, plateau health care has received more and more attention, plateau health care has become an effective method for the treatment and prevention of special diseases in many countries and regions in the world, Qinghai due to the unique geographical environment, ecological samples, talent team, ethnic medicine and academic exchange advantages of plateau medicine, but also become an ideal place for plateau health medicine and industrial development.
In order to deeply publicize the innovation and practice of our province's implementation of General Secretary Xi Jinping's "three largest" provincial positioning and the concept of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and publicize the major achievements of plateau health medicine and industrial research, Qinghai Daily has launched a series of reports today, fully reporting that our province relies on the unique resource endowment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to carry out plateau medical research and application, make outstanding contributions to the implementation of the national strategy, healthy China construction, plateau health conservation, and create a good public opinion atmosphere for promoting the development of plateau health medicine and industry in our province.
Before receiving the "July 1st Medal", Wu Tianyi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, was known as the founder of mainland plateau medicine.
Unlike some people who went around in circles to determine a job as their career destination, in 1950, Wu Tianyi, who failed to go to the Korean front and was sent to China Medical University to study, formed an indissoluble bond with medicine.
In 1956, Wu graduated with a score of five and went with the Chinese Volunteers to work in a hospital in Pyongyang, North Korea. In 1958, Wu Tian, a Tajik soldier who returned from Korea, repeatedly regarded the needs of the motherland as his first wish, and actively responded to the call of the state to support the northwest and came to Qinghai.
Fate is always wonderful. Here, Wu Tian began the path of practicing medicine for which he dedicated his life.
One goal - "I want to conquer altitude sickness"
A writer once said that the whole meaning of life lies in the endless exploration of what is not yet known, in constantly adding more knowledge.
At the end of the 50s of the 20th century, a large number of young people came to Qinghai to build a plateau with dreams.
But what people didn't expect was that the natural environment with high altitude and low oxygen caused many builders to react to varying degrees: panic, chest tightness, difficulty breathing... Due to lack of awareness, many altitude sickness is treated as common pneumonia and pulmonary congestion, and some people have fallen ill one after another and even lost their lives. Faced with such a situation, many people had to evacuate early and returned disappointed.
For this torturous "plateau strange disease", as an internist, young Wu Tianyi saw it in his eyes and was anxious in his heart.
"Many of the people supporting the construction were not adapted to the highland climate, and several groups of teams failed. In addition, I also noticed that during the Sino-Indian border self-defense counterattack in 1962, a large number of acute altitude sickness occurred among the Indian troops transferred from the plains, and many people died along the way. Wu Tianyi found that the problem of hypoxia in the plateau was a medical problem that China had been unable to solve in the plateau economic construction and national defense construction at that time, and domestic relevant research was almost blank.
"I'm going to conquer altitude sickness!"
In this way, Wu Tianyi had the idea of finding an effective way to deal with altitude sickness, and it was from then on that he locked his research direction in the field of altitude medicine.
"The harsh environment of oxygen and low pressure on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau hinders the pace of development of the plateau and threatens the health and safety of residents and soldiers here. Wu Tian began to use the medical knowledge he learned to protect the lives and health of the people of the plateau, and his career choice without regrets in his life also began.
A standard - In the medical community, an international standard named after the Qinghai standard was born
In 1978, Wu Tianyi and his colleagues co-founded the Qinghai Plateau Medical Research Institute, the first professional research institution of plateau medicine in mainland China. In order to fully grasp various acute and chronic altitude diseases, he began to lead teams to Guoluo, Yushu and other places above 4,000 meters above sea level to investigate the physiological characteristics of people living at high altitudes and various acute and chronic altitude diseases.
Long distances, thin population, traffic congestion, harsh environment... In the face of one difficulty after another, Wu Tianyi and his team not only did not retreat, but firmed up the sampling principle - no one could be left behind.
"From Xining to Xueshan Township, Maqin County, Guoluo Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, the road is far and the transportation is inconvenient, and it takes three days to drive. Once at the place, they used yaks to carry testing equipment and rode from house to house to collect data. Along the way, I ate steamed pickles and lived in the 'horse backbone' tent that I had built. "When Geng Deng, director of the Health Examination Management Center of Qinghai Provincial Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Specialist Hospital, first joined the work, he was assigned to Wu Tianyi as an assistant and translator. The hardships along the way are still vividly remembered.
In this way, riding a horse during the day and carrying inspection equipment, Wu Tianyi and the team rushed to the plateau at an altitude of four or five kilometers. At night, the lights come on on on the steppe. With the sound of the generator "clicking", they began to record the day's itinerary and data.
The "horse's backbone" tent is set up in the forbidden area of life, and the medical laboratory is built on the roof of the world.
In order to comprehensively grasp all kinds of acute and chronic altitude sickness as soon as possible, from 1979 to 1992, Wu Tianyi presided over a large-scale survey of altitude sickness covering 100,000 people for more than 10 years.
In 1997, the International Association of Alpine Medicine proposed to establish international diagnostic criteria for chronic altitude sickness, but the pathophysiology involved in chronic altitude sickness is far more complex than acute altitude sickness. At many international seminars, the opinions of experts from various countries were very divergent, and everyone wanted to come up with their own standards.
In August 2004, the 6th World Congress of Plateau Medicine was held in Xining, and the Chinese team expert group represented by Wu Tianyi proposed a quantitative diagnosis system for chronic altitude sickness based on the epidemiology, pathophysiology and clinical aspects of chronic altitude sickness. "There were four discussions, the last of which reached midnight, and finally got the agreement of most experts. At the meeting, they suggested naming it 'Xining Standard', and I said it would be called 'Qinghai Standard'! ”
From that moment on, an international standard for the medical profession named after the Qinghai standard was born.
A miracle - in five years, the 140,000 road construction troops of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway continued to work at an altitude of more than 4,500 meters, and no one died due to altitude sickness
With a series of pioneering achievements, Wu Tianyi was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2001. In the same year, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway broke ground.
"I was thrilled to hear this for a long time. Because I know that my years of accumulation finally have a place. Wu Tianyi said.
As the world's highest altitude and longest plateau railway, permafrost, cold and lack of oxygen and fragile ecology are the three major worldwide problems faced by the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. Every year, tens of thousands of workers work in the Tangula Mountains at altitudes between 4,000 and 5,072 meters. The lack of cold and oxygen is a serious threat to the health of railway builders, which is a major worldwide problem in the construction of plateau railways and a severe challenge to plateau medicine.
"80% of the places along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway are above 4,500 meters above sea level. Only half the oxygen absorbed here is absorbed by sea-level areas. ”
During his tenure as a medical consultant on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Plateau and the leader of the plateau physiology research group, Wu Tianyi guided the construction of 45 oxygen supply stations and 38 hyperbaric chamber stations, carried out the popularization of knowledge on the prevention and treatment of altitude sickness, put forward the three high and three low first aid measures of "hyperbaric chamber, high-pressure bag, high-flow oxygen inhalation" and "low turn, low turn, and then low turn", and established and improved health security measures and first aid programs.
In order to do a good job in group prevention and treatment, Wu Tianyi made many scientific reports on the prevention and treatment of plateau disease along the railway, and wrote the "Plateau Health Care Handbook" and "Common Sense of Plateau Disease Prevention" to every builder at the forefront.
In fact, in the construction of the project, from the construction of oxygen supply stations and hyperbaric oxygen chambers along the railway, to the employees getting up at night, Wu Tianyi thought of it.
"Don't underestimate getting up at night, many people fall on this 'soak of urine' thing. Sleep hot, run out to the toilet, once the cold occurs altitude pulmonary edema is serious. Therefore, I recommend using a sanitary car with heating to connect to the accommodation room at night for the builder to go to the toilet and also prevent environmental pollution. ”
To this day, Wang Jin, deputy secretary of the Party Committee and vice president of Qinghai Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Specialist Hospital, still remembers the scene when he worked with Academician Wu.
"Before us, academicians are experts. But once he sits on the side of the road with the worker, he will completely avoid those obscure professional terms, take oxygen, sleep... It's all vernacular, including the pamphlets, all of which are illustrated and textual, and everyone can understand it. ”
During the day, I hold training meetings on the construction site and go back to my room at night to answer questions. In the five years since the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, Wu Tianyi's research has not only improved labor efficiency, but also created a record of zero deaths from acute mountain sickness among 140,000 road construction troops.
Source: Qinghai Daily Author: Xian Wenjing
Editor: Xie Qingyu Responsible editor: Lu Dong Executive producer: Ma Zhenlong