(Photo/SPIC)

Zhang Qiuping, stepmother of Chen Bo, the employee of State Power Investment Corporation Limited(SPIC), is the director of the outpatient department of Wuhan Lung Hospital. Since the outbreak of the virus, she has never stepped away from her duties. Zhang has been working and living in the hospital for 10 daysstraight and seeing more than 300 patients a day.

Since January 22, Zhang Qiuping has been on duty in the department, even throughout the Spring Festival Holiday. During the ten days, she ate in the hospital office and rested in the duty room, working shifts with several doctors and taking only a few hours off each day. During these ten days, because there were no additional clothes to change into, she had to find time to wash the only pieces of clothings she had, wearing them again after they dried.

(Photo/SPIC)

“Every time I ask her about the situation through WeChat, she always tell me things are OK and that she is fine,” said Chen Bo. However, when she saw Zhang’s photos sent on the WeChat group, she nearly broke into tears, because in each of the photos she saw, Zhang’s hands were eroded from repeated soaking disinfectant liquid.

During the Spring Festival Holiday, Chen Bo stayed in Beijing instead of returning to Wuhan because of the epidemic. Now living in Beijing, she expects a phone call every day from her mother to personally tell her that she is fine.

(Photo/SPIC)

On the eve of the new year, back in Wuhan in Chen’s home, there was only one person, her father. Zhang called him assuring him that she was fine but could not come home to celebrate the Spring Festival because there was too much work at the hospital. She also told him to cook some dumplings for himself.

The outpatient department where Zhang works is at the forefront of the fight against the epidemic, and a key hub that decides on measures regarding the separation of pneumonia patients and non-patients and makes the decisions for isolation protection and treatments. Zhang wears a mask and protective clothing every day, and insists on offering consultations and physician visits.

(Photo/SPIC)

Every day, she would see several hundred patients, sometimes up to three or four hundred patients. At the end of the day, her voice would turn hoarse because her job requires for her to be talking a lot in a noisy environment. She often has to explain situations to her patients over and over again.

At present, her outpatient department is short in staff, and they have no time to make phone calls or even send WeChat messages. It is even harder for her to find the time to take a nap.

Chen is very concerned about her mother, and asks her when she will come back home. Zhang replies with, “I’ll go back when the virus is under control, and you all take care of yourselves.” After the conversation, she proceeds to continue with her work.

Zhang has never faltered in the face of the epidemic and despite the shortage of staff, she said, “Everyone works hard here, I have done nothing special. I am just performing my duty.”