Young doctor on stretcher races against clock trying to save life

Kneeling down on a quick moving stretcher, Dr Lu attempts closed-chest cardiac massage on a 40-year-old man who suffered a sudden cardiac death.[Photo from web]

Recently, a photo showing a doctor in her thirties from Hangzhou Emergency Medical Center, Zhejiang Province, giving closed-chest cardiac massage to a 40-year-old man who had suffered a sudden cardiac death, went viral on Wechat.

The doctor Lu Shuwen, 150 centimeters tall (4'11"), knelt down over the patient on a quick moving stretcher, as she said that it may take at least thirty seconds to reach the Emergency Room and every second counted, reported Qianjiang Evening News.

It was the evening of November 14th when Lu was assigned the task of saving the man who was already in a coma and whose condition had been ranked at D-level, the second-most serious level in terms of severity.

The patient had stopped breathing and had no heartbeat for a while. A monitor alarm kept sounding during the rescue attempt. Though great efforts were made to save the patient, the man died.

"Many would think that we paramedics do not care about patients' lives any more since we have seen so much death. But the truth is not like that. We do want to bring every patient back," said Lu.

Lu has a three-year-old daughter, Mengmeng. "After I had my daughter, it seemed that I could understand more deeply the feelings of my patients' family members."