"Diplomacy in White" Builds a Bridge of Friendship Between China and Canada

Huang Ruibin, a member of the 10th canadian medical team, is studying imaging data. Courtesy of respondents

■ 50 years of health aid

In accordance with the relevant agreement between the Chinese and Ghanaian governments, on December 29, 2009, the first batch of advance teams to assist Ghana set out from Guangzhou and set foot on the unfamiliar African land. Today, Guangdong has sent 10 consecutive medical teams to Ghana. The China-Ghana Friendship Hospital in Accra, the capital of Ghana, is always overcrowded, and the Culture of Traditional Chinese Medicine is also "circled" here.

It is a medical team and a diplomat

When the advance team of China's first medical team to aid Ghana arrived in Ghana, the airport was deserted, there was no welcome ceremony, and no one from the Ghanaian side came. Before leaving, as the captain, Wei Jianrui, who was then the vice president of the Guangzhou Red Cross Hospital, expected difficulties, but he did not expect that the biggest difficulty was the indifference and exclusion from the recipient countries, and at the beginning they could not even enter the hospital.

Under the agreement between the two countries, they will work at the Kribb Teaching Hospital, the largest hospital in West Africa. But local doctors with Western education do not want Chinese doctors to intervene in clinical work at all. The chief surgeon at Cribb Teaching Hospital asked the Chinese medical team to obtain a local license and train in English for one month. The director of internal medicine also proposed that they be "apprenticed" for one year, first as "apprentices". Ghanaian health ministry officials have also repeatedly persuaded medical teams to work in community hospitals.

Wei Jianrui is well aware that he cannot agree to what is not in line with the agreement between the two countries.

They thought of a lot of ways. On the one hand, Wei Jianrui wrote to the Ghanaian Ministry of Health to explain the situation, and communicated closely with the Chinese Embassy, based on the agreement between the two governments. On the other hand, the team members tried to use their skills, which was approved by the local doctors.

Breakthroughs in anesthesiology and urology.

Li Jie, an anesthesiologist at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, used only a laryngoscope to complete endotracheal intubation anesthesia for a serious patient with a tumor-filled mouth, and the superb technology completely convinced the director of the anesthesiology department of the hospital and the on-site medical care.

Under the efforts of Wei Jianrui, China donated a batch of equipment such as ureteroscopy to Ghana. Liu Ping, a urological surgeon at the Third Hospital of Guangdong Medical University, used a full set of equipment brought from China to complete the first ureteroscopic stone removal operation in Ghana without surgery, and lifted the obstruction for the patient in just one hour.

"Chinese doctor, very good (excellent)!" While impressing the local doctors, the Chinese doctors also contacted the country to donate a large number of medical equipment and medicines such as ecgromic monitors and other urgently needed local ecgromic monitors. The director of internal medicine turned 180° and saw Wei Jianrui in the distance, and greeted him warmly: "Professor Wei (Professor Wei)!" ”

When the first team members left, it was the Christmas holiday and the weekend. Ghana, who never works on rest days, broke with convention and prepared a grand farewell ceremony for them.

"At that moment, I can proudly say that the Chinese medical team was recognized by the people of Ghana." After many years, Wei Jianrui, who is now the director of guangzhou women's and children's medical center, is still moved.

Explore new models of medical aid

The first medical teams opened up the situation and accumulated experience for later teams. So far, Guangdong has sent 10 batches of medical teams to Ghana, with a total of 110 team members. The 10th batch of Ghana-aided medical teams currently on assistance missions are dispatched by the First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University School of Medicine and stationed at the China-Canada Friendship Hospital, which was built with Chinese assistance.

It is known as the crystallization of the cooperation between China and Canada, which has solved the problem of medical treatment for more than 400,000 residents in the vicinity. The entrance to the clinic is often filled with patients waiting for treatment, and the queue will even line up to the staircase.

"A 61-year-old man with a huge malignant gastric stromal tumor, a swollen abdomen, and a critical condition!" One day in April, the medical team received a call for help. "I only had this type of surgery when I was training in the UK 30 years ago." The local doctor ZAK is not sure of the operation.

The heavy responsibility falls on the shoulders of Chinese doctors.

Captain Zhuang Shaohui is responsible for anesthesia, zou Guanfa, a nurse in the operating room, coordinates the operation in fluent English, and the chief surgeon Yang Filling explains to the local doctors around him while operating, exploring, mating the spleen, swimming, exposing... Every step is methodical.

The operation was successfully completed, the patient woke up after 1 hour, and the vital signs were stable. The first case of radical gastric cancer resection in China-Canada Friendship Hospital was successful!

This is no longer a "first case" brought by several Chinese medical teams. In the past 12 years, a group of Chinese medical team members have brought high-tech medical clinical techniques such as cardiac surgery, tumor removal, and limb replantation to Ghana, relieving the pain of countless people.

Lin Chunying, the leader of the second batch of medical teams donated by China, fully applied the cardiac ultrasound and Holter electrocardiogram donated by China to the clinic, and established a management model for cardiology wards. By the time she left, the monthly mortality rate in the Cardiology Department at Cribb Teaching Hospital had dropped from 11 percent to 5 percent.

In order to alleviate the pressure of the prefecture-level city to send foreign medical teams, and at the same time to ensure the medical technology level of the medical team, under the impetus of the previous groups of team members, the ghana medical team was mainly sent to the affiliated hospitals of higher medical colleges in Guangdong Province, and the term was shortened from 2 years to 1 year. This group model was borrowed from later medical work in Dominica.

The combination of "going out" and "please come in" is also the first to be explored in Ghana. Many doctors in Ghana have gone to Guangdong for training and study, and many Ghanaian medical students who studied in Guangdong have returned to their home countries to practice after completing their studies.

According to the characteristics of foreign aid work and the actual local needs, Guangdong also relied on the Ghana medical team to explore and implement short-term foreign aid innovation projects with specialized assistance as the entry point, opening up a new model of medical aid to foreign countries.

The China-Ghana West Africa Heart Center Cooperation Project was officially launched in 2015, and medical experts "brought their own dry food" to establish a cardiovascular specialist team for Ghana from scratch;

The China-Ghana Maternal and Child Health Project project counterpart helped the China-Canada Friendship Hospital, which greatly improved the quality of neonatal care in the hospital, and the neonatal mortality rate and infant mortality rate were reduced by 8 and 7 thousand points respectively in 2019.

The culture of traditional Chinese medicine has taken root

At an event in 2019, huang Mou, a local overseas Chinese leader, suddenly fainted and fell to the ground. Liu Qiuhong, the leader of the 8th batch of medical teams present, and the team members urgently sent him to a nearby private hospital.

Probably a stroke! Liu Qiuhong immediately identified himself with the local doctor, hoping to use Traditional Chinese medicine acupuncture and bloodletting therapy. The local doctors were suspicious and reluctantly agreed, but the whole time they were nervously "monitored".

Without carrying acupuncture needles with him, Liu Qiuhong and the team members chose a needle of a 5 ml syringe and stabbed it into the ten Xuan points of Huang's 10 fingertips. The bean-sized blood flowed out, and within a few minutes, Huang's consciousness and perception were restored, and the local doctor's eyes widened in surprise.

Since December 2018, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine has sent the 8th batch of medical teams to aid Canada, and then Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine has led the formation of the 9th batch of medical teams, and Chinese medicine has also become the feature of these two teams.

The first use of traditional Chinese medicine bloodletting therapy to treat acute laryngitis after general anesthesia, the first use of acupuncture to assist in the treatment of postoperative abdominal distension and abdominal pain, the effect is exact; the first use of abdominal acupuncture therapy to treat lumbar disc herniation, obesity... The miraculous acupuncture method of Chinese doctors is passed on by word of mouth among local residents.

Ghanaians still retain the traditional custom of walking with a heavy weight on their heads, and the incidence of cervical and lumbar spine problems is high. Yuan Feng, a member of the 9th medical team, used electric needles and warm acupuncture to solve the problem of low back pain for residents in the nearby community, and more and more patients came to visit.

"Dr. Yuan, we want to learn TCM acupuncture." Local doctors and nurses have learned from their teachers. Through passing on the help, Yuan Feng trained 3 local doctors who mastered the characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine.

Over the past 12 years, the culture of Traditional Chinese medicine has been increasingly recognized by local residents.

Medical team member Liu Chenliu performed thunder fire moxibustion to treat female patients with abdominal pain, which was praised one after another; the medical team came to the largest traditional medicine hospital in Ghana, and African friends stood up and followed them to play eight duan jin to strengthen their bodies; the Chinese medicine they brought such as appetizer and spleen drink and silver lotus mouthwash became "hot goods".

At the time of the spread of the new crown pneumonia epidemic in Ghana, Shi Yongyong, the leader of the 9th batch of medical teams to aid Canada, invited a group of Ghanaian experts to participate in the video link with domestic experts to understand the anti-epidemic methods of traditional Chinese medicine.

When it was learned that Chinese medicine decoctions can effectively alleviate symptoms, Kemei, a member of the Ghana epidemic prevention and control expert group, took the initiative to discuss with the medical team when and how to use Chinese medicine.

With Traditional Chinese medicine as a bridge, the chinese and Canadian peoples learn from each other, build trust, and build a community with a shared future for mankind.

Nanfang Daily reporter Zhong Zhe Li Xiuting intern Liu Jietong