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by Xinhua writers Luo Xin and Lyu Qiuping
Zhang Mingzhu had to cancel her reservation of having family photos taken on Valentine's Day as her husband Zhao Lu had rushed to Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak in central China's Hubei Province.
The couple, both nurses, had no time preparing roses or chocolates for each other. All Zhao did was to tell Zhang he missed her via a WeChat message, instead of a video call.
"I don't want her to see the bruise mark on my face caused by the tight mask," he said.
Zhao, 33, is the head nurse at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital. He and 13 medical workers were sent to Wuhan 20 days ago to join the treatment of patients diagnosed with COVID-19.
He was assigned to Wuhan Union Hospital affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology to be in charge of a ward section of COVID-19 patients, mostly in serious condition.
It is the first time for Zhao to work in an isolation ward.
“It takes at least half an hour to put on the protective gear, which is smothering," he said, adding that the clothes in the suit will be soaked in sweat after a day's work.
"At night when it gets cold, we have to keep moving to stay warm in the wet clothes,” Zhao said.
To save protective gear, which fell severely short in Wuhan, Zhao refused to have food or water before his shift, because he had to throw away his protective suit once he went to the toilet and put on a new one. Some of his colleagues even wore diapers.
Zhao said in addition to basic medical care, the nurses fed the patients and helped them relieve themselves in bed. They also addressed the anxieties of the patients.
He recalled there was a patient who got so anxious that he rang the bell every 30 seconds requesting a transfusion.
"We had to constantly comfort him, explaining that he only needed to take oral medication according to doctors' prescriptions," he said.
In order to cheer up the patients, Zhao and his colleagues wrote encouraging words and drew positive pictures on the protective suits.
Zhao said he was very moved as once they entered the ward, patients would turn their heads to the opposite side for fear of infecting them.
Among the nurses Chaoyang Hospital sent, two were male.
"Compared with our female colleagues, I want to shoulder more responsibility," Zhao said.
Zhao misses his family very much. His daughter is 11-months-old and learned to say "papa" while he was in Wuhan.
"I hope I will soon be able to hear her call me papa face to face," he said.
Back in Beijing, Zhang would turn on the TV and browse the official website and microblog of the hospital, trying to find some news about her husband.
Before Zhao's departure, she wrote him a letter during a sleepless night.
"I will take care of our daughter, parents and myself at home. I'll wait for you to come back and celebrate our daughter's first birthday together," she wrote in the letter.
More than 20,000 medical workers had been sent to Hubei as the latest report brought the total confirmed cases in the hard-hit province to 51,986 by Thursday.
According to the National Health Commission, a total of 1,716 medical workers had been infected with the novel coronavirus by Feb. 11, with six deaths reported.
