EVERY LIFE COUNTS

Chen Jingyu arrived at Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan, capital city of Hubei Province in central China, on the night of April 18. As one of China’s top lung transplant surgeons and part of a team of national experts in the field, he came with a special mission.

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic in Wuhan had largely been contained by then, with official figures showing there were only 109 confirmed cases in the city that day, including 22 cases displaying severe symptoms. So as medical teams from other provinces and regions were leaving Wuhan, this team was going in the opposite direction.

In People’s Hospital of Wuhan University, a patient waited urgently for the team. Cui Zhiqiang, a 65-year-old local, was confirmed with COVID-19 on February 7, and had been on life support for about 60 days.

Cui’s condition deteriorated quickly in the hospital. He had to be put on an invasive ventilator on February 17, and then on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) artificial lung machine a day later.

During treatment, Cui’s nucleic acid test was continuously negative,