Foreign service doctors make a difference in Morocco

A medical team of 11 doctors from Jiading District have been hard at work in Morocco, enhancing the reputation and image of China's medical aid teams overseas.

They have diagnosed and treated 12,600 patients and performed more than 4,300 operations of various types in the North African country since last February. During that time, they have overcome difficulties such as living in the Sahara desert, lack of local doctors and medicine, and language barriers.

Jiading has dispatched medical teams to Morocco since 1994. The fifth group of medical aid teams set off on February 2 last year for a two-year medical aid mission.

"After returning to China, I often remember the patients' eyes seeking help," 54-year-old Jiang Quanming, leader of the recent medical team, said. It's his second trip to Morocco.

The hospital Jiang works at is in the Sahara Desert. Due to the lack of medical resources and poor transport facilities, patients with common diseases, such as appendicitis, will sometimes wait till they are dying before they see a doctor.

Six months ago, Jiang treated a 107-year-old patient and found a huge abscess in the liver of the old man, accompanied by ascites. The patient was diagnosed as peritonitis. After Jiang consulted with Gao Yuping, who also went to Morocco, and local doctors, he immediately worked out a surgical treatment plan for the man.

In the end, the collaborating Chinese and local doctors removed the abscess with a diameter of 20 centimeters. The old man recovered and was discharged a week later.

"Thank you Chinese doctors for saving my life," the old man said affectionately before leaving hospital, holding the hands of Jiang and Gao.

Ti Gong

Since 1975, China has annually dispatched medical teams to offer services in Morocco, so Chinese doctors have, for almost two generations, become well-known there.

A Jiading medical team in Morocco once went to the Sahara Desert and passed by a cafe. After the owner learned that they were Chinese doctors, he immediately called his mother, wife and three children to thank them.

It turned out that when the owner's mother gave birth more than 30 years ago, the surgery was performed by a Chinese doctor. The owner himself contracted hydatid disease more than 10 years ago and was saved from dying by a Chinese doctor. Later, his wife gave birth and was delivered by a Chinese doctor.

"Doctors from Jiading have been assisting Morocco for 28 years. After seeing the recruitment notice, I signed up as soon as possible, just hoping to continue the branded service," Lei Hui from Jiading District Maternal and Child Health Hospital said.

"In the past year, I have handled more than 5,000 outpatient and emergency patients, treated more than 1,000 inpatients of various types, and presided over nearly 1,000 ophthalmic surgeries of various types, of which about 90 percent were fourth-level surgeries with great difficulties," said Zhang Deyu, associate chief physician of Jiading Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Ti Gong