At the front line of battle against disease

CHEN SHENG

Title: Doctor

Age: 40

1994-1999: Chongqing Medical University

1999-present: Working at Chongqing Southwest Hospital affiliated to Third PLA Military Medical University

It gave Chen Sheng great satisfaction to save a 7-year-old Ebola patient. But the pediatrician was devastated that he could not save a 5-month-old boy.

"It was already a miracle that the infant lived nine days after being diagnosed with Ebola," Chen said. "If he could have held on for two more days, he might have survived."

The death rate of Ebola patients under age 15 is about 74 percent, and he estimated that the figure for babies under 1 year old is 80 to 90 percent.

Chen and his colleagues tried all means possible to save the infant.

In order to give oxygen to the fragile patient, which was a very dangerous move for the medical workers, the Chinese team spent a whole night scouting for an oxygen tank.

"We thought nothing about ourselves (getting infected by the virus) but saving his life," the doctor said.

"His situation changed so fast and we did not have enough medical supplies in Liberia. We were really, really upset about his death."

With intensive care, the 7-year-old boy was a lucky survivor. He was diagnosed with Ebola on Dec 24 and discharged on Jan 12.

To give better nutrition to the patient, Chen and his teammates fed him their own food, such as milk powder and nutrition pills, and went out to buy the local food the boy wanted to eat.

"When we bought some bananas for the kid from a local farmer, he thanked our efforts to help his countrymen and refused to take our money," Chen said. "At that moment, I felt our hearts were connected."

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