Doctors crack 8,000 ampules open overnight to save poison victim

When a patient was rushed to a hospital in Shantou, south China's Guangdong Province, with symptoms of severe insecticide poisoning, staff members knew it was going to be a long night. In the 12 hours after the patient's admission to the intensive care unit (ICU), eight medical workers raced time as they snapped off the necks of 8,000 ampules containing small doses of an antidote needed in massive amounts to get the patient out of the danger.

The staff's efforts, eventually successful, won applause from netizens flooding Chinese social media outlets with high remarks to the medics.

The arduous race against time began at around 7:00 p.m. last Thursday when a patient poisoned with DDVP – a potentially-lethal insecticide – was admitted to the ICU at the First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College.

In urgent need of at least 400 mg of atropine per hour – a medication which in large doses can treat poisoning, medical workers immediately started to snap open glass ampules each containing just 0.5 mg of the medicine.

During the emergency treatment that lasted until 8:00 a.m. the next day, the medical staff broke open over 8,000 ampules collected from the departments of the hospital and other hospitals around the city. 

Tiredness, soreness and blood resulting from the sharp edges of the broken ampule necks did not prevent the medical staff from working nonstop. 

The case received wide attention from the media after photos capturing the scene were posted on WeChat, China's most popular instant messaging application, and then pulled across social media platforms to Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter.

Thousands of netizens extended appreciation and gratitude to the committed medical workers.

"I must give a thumb up to these doctors,” commented a user who goes by the name @dengzheshouxindehanzi, noting that they must have had a difficult time in managing to secure the very large doses of the medicine.

Another netizen, @daling-lu, shared her own experience where her hand was left with a scar after breaking open over a hundred ampules while on duty as a nurse.

Hong Shuting, the doctor in charge of the patient's treatment, responded to the praise by saying that has always been their duty to spare no efforts in saving people’s lives.

Doctors’ selfless medical contributions are a recurrent tearjerker on social media, tugging at the heartstrings of netizens.

Meng Zongxia, an anesthetist at North China University of Science and Technology Affiliated Hospital in Tangshan, north China’s Hebei Province recently won the hearts of many after a photo of her embracing and soothing a three-year-old girl patient following a surgery until she regained consciousness was heavily shared online.