Nurse Couple, Separated in Their Work, Fight Against COVID-19

"You need to live up to the expectations of the country and people and I will wait for you to come back."

This is a post shared by Bai Yu on her WeChat Moments 36 days ago, encouraging her husband Xing Zhengtao who was working in Wuhan City, Central China's Hubei Province, to continue giving medical assistance.

Bai and Xing are both nurses in the emergency department of the Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University in Beijing. After the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the couple signed up to assist Wuhan by answering the hospital's call for volunteers. 

On Jan 27, Xing received a notice that he was selected into the hospital's medical team composed of four doctors and eight nurses to assist Wuhan, however Bai was not.

"Our 1-and-a-half-year old daughter may be the reason the hospital decided that one of us should stay," Bai explained.

After a quick training session in Wuhan, Xing and his colleagues began working on January 29 on the front line of the fight against the epidemic at Wuhan Union Hospital.

Bai continued her work in Beijing but also played her part in the COVID-19 prevention work. She was temporarily relocated to work on triage from the emergency department's observation room, which means a higher risk due to earlier contact with patients.

After finishing their work, the husband and wife tried hard to find time to talk to each other online.

Bai said they would spend most of the time discussing cases. "As there were some things I didn't understand at work, I would ask him and he would patiently explain them to me," she said.

"Everything is fine, and don't worry about me," Xing said every day in those and similar words on his WeChat moments. He used this way to update his latest condition, assuring relatives and friends concerned about him.

Xing said in his ward five nurses need to take care of 49 critically ill patients. Wearing thick protective clothing, this is not a small workload, he said.

Despite the hard work, Xing said he was deeply touched by the simple actions of some patients. "For example, they talked to us with their backs facing us as they tried to reduce our risk of infection," he said. 

On February 14, Bai put together photos of both of them wearing protective clothing, to preserve the special memory of their efforts in battling the virus.

In addition, Bai made a wish to her husband, "We are now 1,128 kilometers apart, but when the cherries bloom in Wuhan, we will go there again and enjoy the beautiful scenery together."

(Source: China Women's News/Translated and edited by Women of China)