Ambulance death sounds siren on drivers making way

BEIJING, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Emergency physician Wang Yuzhu hardly knows anything about the woman whose life she tried so desperately to save.

In an incident that has since become a cause celebre online, Wang's patient, a woman in her 50s, died on Friday in the back of an ambulance, even though the hospital to which it was heading was only a stone's throw from where she was seriously injured by a concrete mixer. The life-or-death journey proved too long in Beijing's afternoon rush hour.

"The scene of the accident is no more than three km from the hospital, yet it took us a good 40 minutes to arrive there! Barely any cars made way for our ambulance! So woeful!" Wang wrote in a post on Sina Weibo, a popular Twitter-like microblogging service.

"As a doctor, I feel regret for the loss of a life; and as a citizen, I feel helpless," Wang, who has worked at the Beijing Emergency Medical Center for over a decade, said under the screen name "Monica-Xiaomo."

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