A “Red Detachment of Women” – a medical team consisting of nine female doctors and nurses were sent to Hubei, a central Chinese province severely hit by the novel coronavirus outbreak, to aid epidemic control on Feb.2.

(Photo/Chinanews.com)

The nine doctors and nurses from the Affiliated Hospital of Beihua University (AHBU) are of different ages as well as life experiences, and come from different family backgrounds, but they share the same goal during this trip – to terminate the novel coronavirus and make the country victorious.

Kong Xiangmin, 49, is the oldest in the team. Her husband Hao Dalin was left a heavy task after Kong set off – to take care of Kong’s father who suffers from mobility problems. “My father-in-law has difficulties walking, so I have to make him food every day.”

As a matter of fact, Hao, who is a doctor with the infectious liver disease department at the AHBU, is already shouldering busy tasks at work as his department has been turned into a quarantine ward after the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. However, the man still supports his wife, saying he must make her feel assured on the frontline of the battle.

Six of the nine medical staff come from the respiratory medicine department of the hospital. According to Shi Mei, director of the department, they are the best doctors and nurses of the department.

“They are so busy in Hubei that they don’t even have the time to answer my calls,” Shi said, adding that she still insists that they check in with her every day in the department’s chat group after work.

The 27-year-old Zhao Yongcai is the youngest among the nine. Xie Dan, head nurse of the respiratory medicine department, said she was concerned when receiving Zhao’s application to go to Hubei as the latter was preparing for a wedding scheduled in July.

Zhao’s fiancé Li Yao said he fully supports his wife-to-be’s decision, adding that they can postpone the wedding ceremony. “I just want her to come home safe and sound,” Li said.

There is also a nurse in the team whose child is just 20 months old. Before the trip, the nurse, Luan Tingting’s husband by the name of Wei Peng, took the child to Luan’s parents’, saying that he can take care of both the child and the elderly there.

Zhao Wenjia, a nurse from the intensive care unit, is also a brave woman. Learning the information that the hospital would offer aid to Hubei, she immediately requested to go to the frontline. “I’m footloose and fancy-free.” That’s what she told her head nurse Wang Xueying.

Before and after work every day in Wuhan, they would remind each other whether they have done a good job in terms of their medical protection work. In off-hours, they never walk out of their quarantine rooms except for the purpose of fetching meals at the door.

Their communications occur exclusively within group chats on WeChat, where they always say that after eliminating the virus, they will definitely go out to try some hot dry noodles – a traditional dish of Wuhan.