Over the past three years, Zheng has been battling altitude sickness. Every time after completing her ward rounds and providing emergency treatment to patients in Nagqu, a sparsely populated city in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, she needs supplemental oxygen cylinders to alleviate her discomfort, which includes intermittent headaches and muscular soreness, among other symptoms.

 

Nagqu, situated at an average altitude of over 4,500 meters, grapples with low oxygen levels and has a prolonged heating season that spans up to seven months, with the city's lowest temperatures occasionally plummeting to minus 30 degrees Celsius. The climate was unpleasant that some locals said, "there are only two seasons throughout the year in Nagqu, one is winter and the other is almost winter."

 

However, Zheng refused to let these challenges deter her from pursuing her career goals of enhancing local healthcare services and bringing hope to thousands of hospitalized children and their families. Most of these patients hail from remote rural areas in Nagqu.

 

"Before signing up to join medical assistance teams for Xizang, I never heard of Nagqu's name or knew anything about the city," she said. "During my tenure here, I've seen the development of our pediatric department and my own continuous improvement over time. I will definitely miss my life and colleagues here after leaving."

 

Zheng works with the Second Hospital of Dalian Medical University in the city of Dalian in Liaoning Province.

 

As a member of the fifth and the sixth medical assistance team sent by Liaoning to Xizang, she has been tasked with enhancing the medical standards and services in the pediatric department of the People's Hospital of Nagqu City. The hospital has been receiving support from medical professionals and experts from Liaoning since 2015.

 

Starting in 2015, China launched a national program that sends medical personnel from relatively developed eastern regions to Xizang and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to improve their medical service levels. Since then, more than 3,100 high-caliber medical personnel have been dispatched to hospitals in both regions, according to the National Health Commission.

 

These professionals, comprising medical practitioners and managers, have provided guidance to over 1,000 local medical teams and trained more than 7,600 medical personnel. The medical assistance teams sent to Xinjiang and Xizang have significantly elevated local healthcare services over the years, the commission said.

 

In March 2021, when Zheng first came to the hospital, she found only 30 beds in the department, which could barely meet the needs of the patients. But the medical standard and services were better than what she had expected, thanks to the efforts made by her predecessors dispatched from Liaoning.

 

Zheng vividly remembers a case which she believes is "the most critical one" she has encountered during her stay in Xizang. In March 2022, a two-month-old baby boy suffering from toxic encephalopathy was brought by his parents to the Nagqu hospital for treatment.

 

After being admitted, the baby began exhibiting symptoms such as persistent convulsions and eventually experienced a cardiopulmonary arrest. Zheng and her colleagues swiftly initiated emergency measures, saving the baby from the brink of death.

 

"When the baby's parents learned that he had tided over the dangers, they gave me a hada (a traditional Tibetan silk scarf that symbolizes purity and auspiciousness) with tears in their eyes and said 'Tashi Delek' (meaning good luck) to me," Zheng recalled.

 

In addition to her daily work, she helps train local medics and conducts first-aid training sessions at local kindergartens. She also provides free medical consultations to herders in rural areas on a regular basis and distributes essential medicines and informational brochures to raise awareness.

 

Zheng noted that apart from the altitude sickness, there are numerous other challenges here. During rainy and snowy days, while en route for follow-up visits to newborns in rural areas, the dirt roads would often transform into muddy terrain, causing her vehicle to lose traction.

 

However, through the joint efforts of the assistance teams and local healthcare professionals, the medical standards in Nagqu have seen significant improvement. The pediatric ward, currently equipped with 51 beds, has increased its capacity to treat more patients. Moreover, the neonatal mortality rate has witnessed a substantial decline, contributing to the enhanced well-being of local children.

 

Zheng has treated more than 5,000 hospitalized patients in Nagqu, aged 14 years and below. Under her initiative, the Nagqu city critical neonatal treatment center has been established. "The meaningful experience of assisting Xizang has made me grow up," she said.

 

She has formed close connections with the families of many patients. Some of them keep her updated on their children's recovery progress and occasionally seek her advice.

 

Jia Zhuqiang, head of the sixth medical assistance team sent by Liaoning to Xizang and the director of the Nagqu City People's Hospital, said since 2015 Liaoning has sent 135 medical workers from various fields to the hospital, extending free medical consultations to over 7,000 farmers and herders.

 

The Liaoning assistance teams have also established a clinical skills training base in Nagqu, providing training to over 500 local medical workers. And nearly 195 local medics received training in cities such as Shenyang and Dalian, Jia noted.

 

The teams also helped the hospital to set up several new facilities such as a plateau medical research center, Jia added.

 

Zheng is scheduled to return to Dalian in late December after completing her tenure in Nagqu.

 

"During these last two months, I will continue to help develop the pediatric department here and conduct more training sessions for the grassroots medics," she said. "More importantly, I want to create a pediatric specialist pool to help more people."