Hospital president's heroic race against time

"As my life is counting down, I desperately make full use of every single minute," said Zhang Dingyu, president of Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, in the capital of Hubei province.

The 57-year-old, who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which attacks nerve cells that control muscles, in October 2018, has been working with more than 600 others at the hospital for a month since it received the first few cases of pneumonia caused by a novel coronavirus.

"All my colleagues know my short temper," he said in a recent interview with Hubei Daily. "I've become shorttempered because I don't have much time left in my life.

"My leg muscles have become weaker because of atrophy, then my body will lose sensation gradually... I have to run, competing against time to finish important missions. I have to run faster to get more patients back from the critical pandemic."

In the past month, Zhang has usually gone to bed at about 2 am and then risen two hours later to answer a steady stream of calls about patient emergencies.

What makes the unyielding man weep is that his wife was infected with the novel coronavirus while working at another hospital in Wuhan. She received treatment and has now recovered.

"I remember it was Jan 13. I went home very late and talked with her about a patient who was struggling for breath after a seizure," he said. "My wife told me that she had the same symptoms."

He said he felt guilty when she was confirmed as having been infected.

"Maybe I'm a good doctor but not a qualified husband," Zhang said, adding they'd been married for 28 years and he was afraid of losing her.

Zhang was on high alert in December after some cases of pneumonia with an unknown cause began to be reported in the city's hospitals. The Jinyintan hospital received the first seven infected patients when they were transferred there on Dec 29. It later set up a separate area to handle such cases.

He said the wife of one of the first seven infected people had wanted to be hospitalized, even though her symptoms were rather light.

"I suggested she stay at home, taking medicines. She recovered in the next two weeks," Zhang told Hubei Daily.

"The most important thing is to enhance the immunity. Infectious disease is not incurable and what we need to do is to quell fears."

Zhang and his team got some relief on Friday, when medical aid in the form of 150 people from Army Medical University arrived at the hospital.

"In the past month, we were overloaded," he said. "Normally, nurses change their shifts every two hours but the time period has been lengthened to four or even five hours, not to say the doctors. Physical exhaustion will increase risks of being infected. Now, the situation is getting better.

"Our nation is strong in scientific research and economically, and we have Chinese people's wills united like a fortress. I believe that we'll conquer this disease."

Zhang, who has worked at Jinyintan for six years, has been on the front line of medical emergencies and overseas medical relief missions in past decades.

He joined the medical team supporting victims of the devastating Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan province in 2008 and has also helped patients in Algeria and Pakistan.