Project HOPE President and CEO Visits China Earthquake Victims

Chengdu is a city with a distinguished past. Three thousand years old, it holds a special place in Chinese history, as described in the book, Three Countries. At that time, one thousand years ago, its location, and its leader (Kao Ming), played central roles in the war of the then three countries. Chengdu was the capital of one of them, with a smaller warrior force. However, because of the cleverness and guile of Kao Ming, its country prevailed.

Today, it is a city of 20 million (4 million in the city center, 6 million in the surrounding suburbs and, in addition, 10 migrants) with a traditional manufacturing base, now shifting to a service industry. The road from the airport is lined with car dealerships, interspersed with stretches of poverty.

Our destination was the Haixi Hospital, also called the West China Hospital. Located in the heart of the city, it is the largest hospital in China (4300 beds). It is huge and new in appearance, with wailing ambulances coming and going from its Emergency Center. It serves as the principal receiving hospital for the Province's earthquake victims.

Soon after the May 12th earthquake, over 1,300 victims were admitted to the Hospital. The principal surgical diagnoses were open fractures of the extremities; the medical diagnoses were acute anxiety and diarrheal diseases. There are now 600 victims in the Hospital. Of these, 67 await definitive renal dialysis treatment.

The Haixi Hospital is sharing the burden of care of victims with provinces throughout the country. The central government has asked each province to be responsible for one of the effected counties in Sichuan Province. For example, Hubei Province has the responsibility for Ping Yuan county. This extends to food, water, shelter, health and reconstruction.

Project HOPE has had many health education and humanitarian aid relationships throughout Sichuan Province. The staff of the Haixi Hospital participated in our diabetes training programs. Thirty intensivists, (board-certified physicians who are additionally certified in the subspecialty of Critical Care Medicine) from throughout the Province, received training for 3-12 months at the Shanghai Children's Medical Center; ten came from the Chengdu Children's Hospital. The children at the Hospital have received preventive dentistry, modeled after our successful program in Shanghai. Finally, those in the Province, in areas affected by the flooding of 2003, were benefitted by medicines and medical supplies from HOPE.

Because of the patient care demand, created by the volume of earthquake victims, the staff of the Haixi Hospital has been augmented by 300 physicians and nurses from throughout China. While this is meeting the acute care needs of the patients, there is an often-voiced need for rehabilitation medicine, from prosthetics to staff.

In contrast, the Chengdu Children's Hospital is smaller (300 beds) and older (due for replacement in 2010). It is led by a pediatric neurologist and a general pediatrician. It currently has 50 inpatient earthquake victims, whose most frequent diagnoses are trauma-related.

The stories of the patients and their families were most compelling. There was a 3-year old boy with a fractured, right humerus and a most endearing smile. I saw a 7-year-old boy with a fractured right femur, with his twin sister at his bedside; their mother was killed in the earthquake. There was a 13-year-old girl with a fractured pelvis; she was one of 400 at her school, when the building collapsed, where 20 were rescued--of whom four, including this young girl, survived. And an 8-month-old boy with fractures of both femurs, now in bilateral traction.

The doctors and nurses also described stories, from the scene, which can never be forgotten. I was told of a baby born to a mother who died in the earthquake, who was rescued by helicopter, brought to the Hospital and named, in Chinese, "born in earthquake." The medical staff told of the difficulty of extracting another baby from the arms of his mother, who had died violently, clutching him and protecting him.

It was most inspiring to finish the day with six HOPE alumnae: five nurses and one doctor who had trained at the Shanghai Children's Medical Center, as part of our Rural Training Program. The doctor, who heads the neonatal unit, described the impact of her training. It enabled her to care for more patients in the unit, to acquire more sophisticated equipment for use in the unit and to witness a dramatic increase in the survival rate for the unit's newborns.

Looking ahead, the physicians and nurses at the Children’s Hospital spoke to the need for rehabilitation training and care. There is, at present, only one rehabilitation medicine specialist, and there are no physical therapists. Space may be identified for this program, but state-of-the-art equipment is needed. HOPE was able, in the late 1990's, to respond to a similar post-earthquake situation, and make a difference, in Turkey.

En route to the Airport, tents lined the sidewalks in front of nearby apartment buildings. The building residents, fearing another aftershock, were choosing not to spend the night in their buildings. It served as a reminder of a compelling day, just 70km from the epicenter of one of the world's greatest natural disasters.

Please consider providing a cash gift to help us with the substantial relief and recovery work ahead in China.

DONATE NOW