Yale-China Alumni Serve on Frontlines at Wuhan

This patient was transferred from to the hospital where former Chia Fellow Li Li was working. To express her gratitude toward Li Li and other Xiangya nurses who gave her exceptional care, she wrote the poem above.

2020 April 24

We are proud that Yale-China alumni were on the pandemic frontlines this spring—when Xiangya Hospital, Second Hospital and Third Hospital assigned 461 medical professionals to Wuhan to battle the coronavirus outbreak at its epicenter. On January 21st, Dr. WU Anhua, Professor of the Infection Control Center at Xiangya Hospital went to Wuhan as the first expert from Changsha to support the frontline work of epidemic prevention and control. A week later, Xiangya Hospital established a national medical team of five nursing experts, and Second Xiangya Hospital sent five blood purification nurses, and an Emergency Medical Rescue Team with 10 medical rescue vehicles. On February 7th and 8th, each of the three Xiangya hospitals sent 130 people (30 doctors and 100 nurses) along with extensive medical supplies, followed by 15 psychiatrists from Second Xiangya Hospital to care for patients and provide mental health support for frontline health workers.

Among these teams were former Yale-China Chia Fellows LI Li (2011), XIONG Yang (2018) and LIU Jia (2010), and other Yale-China partners, such as Psychology Professor GAO Xueping (one of the leaders of our Autism Training in Hunan project), who took leadership roles in fighting the disease. For example, LI Li, a 2011 Chia Fellow at Yale and Associate Director of Nursing Education and Research at Xiangya Hospital, was the leader of a 100-nurse team that arrived in Wuhan on February 7th. They established two intensive care units (ICUs) at the Wuhan Union Hospital West Campus to take care of COVID-19 patients with severe symptoms. They departed Wuhan at the end of March and are now back in Changsha.