Huang Wenjie, a 58-year-old military doctor who was involved in the fight against SARS in 2003, volunteered to combat the COVID-19 epidemic in the Huoshenshan Hospital, Wuhan, when the outbreak in China was at its peak.

(Photo/Chinanews.com)

"I have gained certain experience from combating SARS and I feel obliged to go to the battlefield against the COVID-19 epidemic as a soldier," Huang said.

Huang had been studying the diagnosis and treatment of lung-related infectious diseases since 1995 and is now a chief physician of respiratory medicine at the General Hospital of the Southern Theater Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

After entering the Huoshenshan Hospital in February, Huang and the other team members not only treated patients, but helped improve the facilities in the wards. Using his previous experience in studying and treating respiratory diseases, he led the team in analyzing pneumonia cases, providing targeted measures and trying to increase the cure rate.

Despite being well-prepared, Huang would often feel discomfort in his chest and shortness of breath due to the intensive workload and the heavy protective clothing he had to wear.

He considers it important to communicate with and examine the patients so as to learn about their conditions and come up with scientific and targeted treatment formulas.

As a cure for COVID-19 has not yet been developed, the priority for the doctors is to deal with the symptoms, maintain the normal functioning of the patients' organs and enable the patients to defeat the virus through their own immunity, Huang pointed out.

For 23 years, Huang has been keeping notes on the latest respiratory cases and diagnostic criteria from magazines. In addition to his sense of diligence, he is also adept at noticing the little details in his work.

While at Huoshenshan Hospital, Huang once received a report from a nurse that the nucleic acid tests of 22 patients out of the total 30 had come back positive. As he was very familiar the patients’ conditions, he believed there was something wrong with such a high ratio.

After checking the records and monitors, he was able to locate the problem in sampling and requested another round of nucleic acid tests. It turned out that only one of the 30 patients was positive for COVID-19.

Huang would also teach young doctors while making the rounds of the wards and share related materials with them via e-mail.

"Passing on medical knowledge to others is also one way of saving lives," Huang said, who considers it his responsibility to disseminate knowledge and ethics to doctors.