Army doctor honored for battling outbreak

Seventeen years ago, Huang Wenjie was the first doctor to report and successfully treat a SARS patient on the Chinese mainland.

In February, as Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, struggled to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, the 58-year-old volunteered again to head to the front line.

A senior military doctor specializing in respiratory medicine at the People's Liberation Army's Southern Theater Command General Hospital, his application was initially rejected because of his age.

However, due to his experience treating severe acute respiratory syndrome patients he was eventually accepted. Huang said he was still healthy enough, despite his years, to withstand the stress and strain of hard work.

"As a soldier and a doctor, I should work on the front line to help cure patients when the country is hit hard by the pandemic," he said.

Huang said as a medical officer it was his duty to share the worries of the nation and serve the people when needed.

He worked in Huoshenshan Hospital, a facility designated for COVID-19 patients in Wuhan, for more than 10 weeks straight before returning home to Guangzhou, Guangdong province, in late April when the pandemic has largely under control.

When he arrived in Wuhan on Feb 2, he stuck to his medical philosophy of not overly relying on medication to treat infected patients.

"There is no specific medicine for COVID-19 at the moment," Huang said. "Doctors should prescribe the right medicines to patients and try to help them stimulate and improve their immunity while keeping the patients' organs functioning properly."

He said he never allowed his team at the hospital to overuse medication and other therapies.

Huang said a doctor could try an unknown treatment, such as hormones or untried drugs, that may quickly return a negative test result for the patient, but cause long-term damage to their health.

Huang said he had one patient, surnamed He, who complained to him and his team that he had been hospitalized for three days and never been given an injection.

"He's symptoms were not that serious, though many of his indicators from a medical examination seemed to be, he did not need an injection," Huang said.

The patient told a nurse that he was worried the doctors had given up treating him because of the seriousness of his illness. However, he recovered and was discharged from the ward a few weeks later without ever receiving an injection.

Huang also asked nurses to implement a discharge procedure in the wards to indicate to anxious new admissions that they would eventually be cured and return home. "That is an effective way to pacify the patients and help them banish fear and anxiety," he said.

Li Li, an infectious diseases doctor at the Southern Theater Command hospital, said Huang is conscientious and rigorous and is always willing to help young doctors. "Huang always answers my questions patiently when I ask him for advice," she said.

Due to his outstanding performance in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, Huang was recently selected as "one of the most beautiful soldiers in the new era".

The PLA called on soldiers across the country to learn from Huang who has been a good example for the whole army. Despite the great honor, Huang said he would continue to work as a doctor in the PLA hospital and treat patients, rejecting better work offers from private hospitals.

Fu Kai and Lin Duo contributed to this story.