"There is no such thing as a 'retrograde march', that's what a doctor does. When they are all heroes, there are no heroes to speak of. ”
Du Bin, vice president of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, firmly believes that only by the bedside can the patient's real situation be understood, he once wore protective clothing in the ICU for 10 hours, and together with other experts, wrote the summarized experience and suggestions into the national version of the diagnosis and treatment guidelines; he also participated in the epidemic treatment in many places since then, and has not returned home for more than half a year.
Du Bin. Courtesy of respondents
Intensive care specialist soaked in the ICU
On January 18, 2020, on the high-speed train from Fuzhou to Anhui, Du Bin received a call to Wuhan to participate in the research and judgment of the epidemic. Because it was the Spring Festival, he could not buy a ticket from Hefei, and the comrades of the railway system led him to take the high-speed train to Wuhan. At that time, he had not expected that it would be a "protracted war".
On January 19, he was informed to join a high-level expert group of 6 people headed by Academician Zhong Nanshan, becoming the only critical care medical expert in the group. This group also includes Academician Li Lanjuan, Academician Yuan Guoyong, Academician Gao Fu, and Professor Zeng Guang. The task of the high-level expert group on the same day was to listen to the reports of the Hubei Provincial Health Commission and the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, to the Wuhan Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, to the Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, and also to the periphery of the seafood market where the outbreak first broke out.
On the night of January 19, Du Bin rushed back to Beijing overnight, buried his head in writing a report until late at night, and on January 20, together with other members of the high-level expert group, reported the situation at the State Council. On this day, the phenomenon of human-to-human transmission of the new crown virus was officially released, and the executive meeting of the State Council decided to include the new crown pneumonia into the statutory infectious diseases and implement measures such as "Class B A management".
On January 21, after receiving the news that "the video communication with the WHO will be rescheduled", Du Bin could not sit still, firmly believing that "only by going to the bedside can we understand the real situation of patients", he took a plane to Wuhan at noon that day, and entered the intensive care unit of Jinyintan Hospital in the afternoon, where he spent Chinese New Year's Eve in 2020.
"At that time, the ICU (intensive care unit) had three floors, all of which were full, but in fact, there were more than one severe and critically ill patient, and later two more floors were opened in the general ward for treatment." Du Bin's initial main work was to understand the characteristics of the disease and explore effective treatment methods as soon as possible. To this end, he plunged into the ICU, "soaked" in it day and night, sat by the bedside to understand the changes in the condition, adjusted the medication, infusion, ventilator parameters, etc. for the patient, sometimes wore protective clothing without eating or drinking for nearly 10 hours, and at most had to inspect the ICU of 5 hospitals a day.
When he was inspecting the Sino-French New City Branch of Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, someone caught such a photo: It was the back of Du Bin walking side by side with Professor Qiu Haibo, vice president of Southeast University and a critical care medicine expert at the Zhongda Hospital affiliated to Southeast University. Du Bin said that after the inspection that day, they also rushed back to the meeting, and when they walked through the ward under the responsibility of the Jiangsu medical team, a doctor gave them a few slices of bread. Because several of the hospital's food crews were infected with covid-19, not only them, but also the patients, did not eat until 12 noon that day.
In Du Bin's view, compared with the medical rescue team supporting Wuhan, it is more difficult for Hubei's medical colleagues. "I've been there for a long time, but it's only been more than 100 days, and it's hard for us to be no longer able to do it than the local medical staff, who have been working since the end of December 2019 until we left." Among the patients admitted, perhaps their families. Du Bin said.
Du Bin, Vice President of Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Courtesy of respondents
"It doesn't matter if you're 'retrograde', but do your best"
When faced with a major infectious disease, some medical staff will hesitate, whether to go to the bedside or not to go, whether to implement the high-risk operation of endotracheal intubation. In Du Bin's view, it is normal to have various reactions, and it is impossible to go up without understanding anything. Like any medical worker, when faced with a fatal infectious disease, he also experienced a process from strange to gradually familiar, but each person's psychological adjustment ability is different, causing different reactions. He admitted that as the leader of a medical team of hundreds of people, he was also worried that once someone in the team fell down and there was a reduction in personnel, it would affect the self-confidence of the entire team to fight the epidemic.
"My task is to look after the patient every day, not to force everyone to be cured, but to do my best." Since I learned this line of work, I should do this, just like a soldier goes to the battlefield and the police chase down fugitives. Recalling the fight against the epidemic in Wuhan again, Du Bin felt that although it seemed hard to support Wuhan at the beginning, there were no heroes to speak of when they were all heroes, and the so-called "retrograde march" was actually the doctor's job. He doesn't ask for anyone else, but at least he can ask himself to observe in the ward for a while, and the more risky it is, the more he must take the lead, only in this way can he make demands on others. Bedside observation, endotracheal intubation, development of treatment plan... He taught medical staff that, when confronted with patients, "always ask yourself a word: What disease are we curing, and why is it treating this disease?" ”
In the early stage of the epidemic, in addition to completing the above work, Du Bin will also go to non-designated hospitals to find out the situation of patients who are concentrated in treatment accompanied by local doctors, and also devote energy to discussing diagnosis and treatment plans with peers. This is also to provide reasonable advice to the decision-making of the Health Commission, including what problems there are in the treatment system, what resources are needed by various medical institutions, what difficulties are in the treatment situation, and what equipment and personnel are needed. "Doing these things in the early days is far more important than I am optimistic about a patient." Du Bin knew that his decision would affect a group of people.
With hundreds of medical teams supporting Wuhan one after another, the rescue system has been established, and the tasks of high-level experts such as Du Bin have also changed. "Our task is to ensure that treatment is homogenized and that the principles of disease treatment are consistent." Du Bin said that including going to Heilongjiang, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and other places, he went with the task of "ensuring the homogenization of treatment". For severe and critically ill patients with new crown pneumonia, strictly speaking, there is no specific drug, no matter what kind of disease, in the severe period, it is no longer just a drug, but more on the team.
After that, Du Bin moved to Heilongjiang, Harbin, Beijing, Urumqi and other places. From the time he left Wuhan to return to Beijing on August 30, 2020, Du Bin did not return to the hospital or home for a single day.
On September 9, 2020, Du Bin set off again, this time to Kunming, for a patient with a new crown pneumonia whose condition is progressing rapidly. The man in his 40s, who worked in Indonesia, took a flight to Kunming and was diagnosed with COVID-19 the next day, and his condition progressed so rapidly that he quickly got on a ventilator. His wife rushed back from Dujiangyan and waited outside the ICU every day. Under the treatment of Du Bin and the local medical team, the patient was eventually discharged from the hospital. Du Bin frankly said that without the full protection of the state, this family may be ruined, because they will never be able to afford so much money to bear the cost of medical treatment.
"In the medical treatment of every major public health emergency, ICU doctors always go last, some people call us heroes, but I don't see it that way, while choosing this industry, I bear the glory brought by this industry, and at the same time bear the requirements it puts on itself." For the high evaluation given by the society, Du Bin feels that there is no need to over-render, like any other professional person, he can make a little contribution to the development of the field he is engaged in, and build a good team while ensuring that he is not left behind, and do his best.
Beijing News: How do you view the title of "Eight Immortals of Severe Illness"?
Du Bin: This is just a code name, everyone pays attention to the efforts of medical staff, and pays attention to the contributions of different people in it. I hope that everyone will recognize the efforts of medical staff, but we cannot say how much role these eight of us have played, because the prevention and control of the epidemic is a multifaceted effort, not only medical treatment, all aspects are playing a role, and the role of several people should not be exaggerated.
This edition is written by Beijing News reporter Wang Kara
Proofread by Xue Jingning