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Two exhausted Wuhan nurses’ plea for international help in open letter
In an open letter published in the medical journal, The Lancet, nurses Yingchun Zeng and Yan Zhen wrote about the severe shortage of protective equipment, the day-to-day difficulties and the physical and mental exhaustion the 14000 nurses deployed in the city are facing.
Two frontline Chinese nurses working in covid-19 outbreak epicentre Wuhan has appealed for international medical help, asking for medical workers from across the world to help them fight the epidemic.
In an open letter published in the medical journal, The Lancet, nurses Yingchun Zeng and Yan Zhen wrote about the severe shortage of protective equipment, the day-to-day difficulties and the physical and mental exhaustion the 14000 nurses deployed in the city are facing.
“Due to an extreme shortage of health-care professionals in Wuhan, 14000 nurses from across China have voluntarily come to Wuhan to support local medical health-care professionals,” they wrote.
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“But we need much more help. We are asking nurses and medical staff from countries around the world to come to China now, to help us in this battle,” they said.
Until Wednesday, the outbreak had killed 2718 and infected more than 78000 in China; more than 3200 medical workers have been infected and at least 20 have succumbed.
The brief letter from the two nurses gives a glimpse of how the outbreak has overwhelmed the response to it.
“The conditions and environment here in Wuhan are more difficult and extreme than we could ever have imagined. There is a severe shortage of protective equipment, such as N95 respirators, face shields, goggles, gowns, and gloves. The goggles are made of plastic that must be repeatedly cleaned and sterilised in the ward, making them difficult to see through,” they wrote.
Yingchun and Yan are from two hospitals in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou and have been working in Wuhan for a month.
They wrote in detail about how difficult it was to treat patients through layers of protective clothing.
“When wearing a mask to speak with patients, our voices are muted, so we have to speak very loudly. Wearing four layers of gloves is abnormally clumsy and does not work—we can’t even open the packaging bags for medical devices, so giving patients injections is a huge challenge,” they wrote.
Medical workers avoid eating for hours before entering the isolation ward, some nurses get blisters from wearing masks.
They wrote about the psychological toll medical workers are going through.
“While we are professional nurses, we are also human. Like everyone else, we feel helplessness, anxiety, and fear. Experienced nurses occasionally find the time to comfort colleagues and try to relieve our anxiety,” the two wrote.
Besides comforting colleagues, the only other outlet is to occasionally cry.
“But even experienced nurses may also cry, possibly because we do not know how long we need to stay here and we are the highest-risk group for COVID-19 infection”.
Yingchun and Yan ended the letter with a prayer and a hope.
“We hope the covid-19 epidemic will end soon and that people worldwide will remain in good health”
