On January 23, 2020 (December 29th of the Chinese lunar calendar), at 10:30 am, Zhong Ming (Deputy Director of the Department of Critical Care Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai) received the instruction of the National Health Commission to help rescue the critical patients with COVID-19 in Wuhan. Wuhan, the mega-city in central China, with a population of more than 10 million, announced “sealed off” only half an hour before that. As the first Shanghai medical expert to support Wuhan, Mr. Zhong arrived in Wuhan on the same day. On the next day, the Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve, he was stationed at Jinyintan Hospital, the main battlefield for treating the most critical patients with COVID-19.
The battle against COVID-19 had been going on here in this hospital for nearly a month before the whole nation's most elite medical forces converged in support. The hospital was the first to admit critical patients with COVID-19 and the first to vacate the wards for new patients. In early January, the original 16-bed ICU at Jinyintan Hospital could no longer meet the needs of treatment. Therefore, two floors of general wards were urgently transformed into ICU wards. Mindray has provided integrated ICU solutions for the expanded ICU wards, and supplied Jinyintan Hospital with ultrasound, mobile DR, and testing equipment. Three days before Mr. Zhong’s arrival, Mindray's service engineers had installed two more sets of central monitoring systems in the isolation wards.
This is a real war. For medical staff, these patient monitors, ultrasound devices, ventilators, and infusion pumps etc. are their tools to gather information about the virus and the weapons to attack and defend against the virus. The Mindray ventilators are small in size and turbine-driven, featuring multiple operation modes with advanced module functions, perfect for the working conditions of isolation wards. They can help doctors better understand the progression of the disease, and reduce their workload, and thus recognized the most effective weapon against the disease.