Chinese obstetrician sows love in Africa

"As a doctor, my love for my career and my care towards patients are borderless," said Guo Luping, a 43-year-old obstetrician from the Maternity and Child Care Center in Xinyu city, Jiangxi province, during an interview with China.org.cn on Oct. 26. Being an obstetrics and gynecology clinician for over two decades, she has performed over 7,000 surgeries and delivered over 20,000 babies.

In 2014, Guo volunteered with the Chinese medical aid team bound for Africa and worked as a doctor at the Sidibzid District Hospital in Tunisia. She started working from the first day of her arrival at the hospital, which is situated beside the Sahara Desert, taking care of the emergency treatment of maternity patients and newborn infants. Within the first 24 hours, she did an ultra-sonography check for 40 patients, conducted seven surgeries and rescued two maternity patients and their babies who were in critical condition. "I knew the task at hand would be tough and was prepared to encounter many difficulties," Guo recalled.

As the hospital was short of doctors, she usually did four or five surgeries every day, sometimes even more than a dozen. At times she had to work on the operation table for three to four days consecutively, having only bread and water. "When I became too tired to stand up, I would sit on a chair and complete the operation," Guo recalled. And even after working late into the night, she still spent time summarizing her operation experience, explored techniques which were more applicable to African women and learnt French to overcome language barriers.

Due to her professional expertise and clinical experience, Guo made several breakthroughs during her time at the hospital. On March 16, 2015, Guo treated a pregnant woman who suffered from frequent uterine contraction, which gave rise to fetal anoxia in the uterus. "Local anesthesia!" she yelled, cognizant of the urgency of the situation, and immediately took up the scalpel to start the operation after the mother was anesthetized. "When the fetus was taken out, there were only a dozen milliliters of amniotic fluid left in the womb," Guo recalled. "The baby's neck was also winded by its umbilical cord." She only took three minutes to complete the operation, which was an unprecedented miracle at the hospital.

On April 12, 2015, Guo treated a maternity patient who suffered from a prolapsed umbilical cord and the fetus was in extreme danger. However, the only operating room of the obstetrics and gynecology department had been occupied, so Guo decided to occupy a room in the surgery department instead. When discovering this, the medical superintendant rejected her proposal. "If we do not do the operation instantly, the fetus will die," she said, finally persuading the superintendant. Without any assistant, Guo conducted the operation on her own and completed it in just 20 minutes. This undoubtedly became exciting news among the medical staff at the hospital. Afterwards, Guo tried every means to set up temporary obstetrics and gynecology operating rooms at the surgery department, which solved the lack of operating tables and delayed treatment of maternity patients.

Guo also saved many patients in critical danger who suffered from massive hemorrhage of the placenta previa, postnatal hemorrhage and other conditions. She made innovations in the execution of complex surgeries, remarkably lowering the rate of infant and maternal mortality at the hospital. At the same time, she taught local medical staff medical philosophy and surgical techniques to pass on her experience to more professionals.

The sustained high-intensity pace of work was exhausting and in March, 2015, Guo felt heart pains for several days. However, just after two days of transfusion treatment, she returned to her work at the hospital. In July that year, she felt severe pains again in her left chest, but because patients were streaming into the hospital every day, she continued working for another five months in spite of her illness.

In January, 2016, when she returned home for her vacation, Guo received a physical examination in Nanchang city, Jiangxi province and was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her doctor said that had she been diagnosed earlier and received treatment, her condition would have been much better. However, only seven days after undergoing an operation to treat her breast cancer, she asked her doctor: "Can I receive chemotherapy half a year later or can I do it in Africa? I promised many pregnant women there that I would deliver their babies for them, and have already bought the return leg of my air ticket before I left Tunisia." Her doctor refused her request and despite her longing to return, Guo did not fly back to Africa.

After receiving further treatment, Guo returned to work at the Maternity and Child Care Center in Xinyu. Her self-sacrificial spirit and work to treat African patients while neglecting her own heath started to spread in her hometown and eventually across China through the media. Right now, apart from her daily work, she is also engaged in public welfare activities and attends international conferences as a representative of Chinese doctors, such as the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, World Philanthropy Forum, and several others. She has delivered numerous speeches, calling for attention to children and women living in underdeveloped areas.

Influenced by her father, a veteran of traditional Chinese medicine, Guo chose to become a doctor and has had no regrets on her career decision. She can't have her own children because of her cancer, but Guo has taken this in her stride. "It's probably a misfortune for me, but I delivered 1,436 babies in Africa and brought good luck to all of them," she smiled wistfully.