Netizens: "Angels in white" touch nation with love

Source: Xinhua | 05-22-2008 16:40

BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhuanet) -- May 12 is the International Nurse Day, but it was celebrated in China this year not by the their flowers, sweets and songs, but by their tears, sweat and a hard battle to save lives.

(Source: China Daily)

On the day, at 14:28 pm, a devastating 8.0-magnitude earthquake jolted southwest China's Sichuan, killing many thousands in a second and sending waves of tremor to many parts of the nation.

Answering the call "Save lives and heal wounds," numerous medical workers hailed from all over China and from other parts of the world rushed to the disaster areas and started a quake-fighting battle on the spot.

In face of the catastrophe, doctors, nurses and medics highly performed their duty and upheld their professional ethics, winning praises from the netizens who have created sites, written blogs and published online messages. In one voice, they say "We want to thank you."

Netizen "Kan Guo Lai" said tears were always in his eyes "whenever I saw those touching scenes from TV programs -- doctors working by the rubbles day and night only stop to eat biscuits when they are hungry.

They have to endure fatiqueness since they don't have time for rest; Some nurses have to slap their own faces to refresh themselves."

"Kan Guo Lai" added he knew that the doctors and nurses will have to spend numerous sleepless nights treating the injured because to them life is priceless. "I just want to say thank you, you work too hard!" he wroted in his blog.

A medical worker treats a victim at the temporary rescue center  of the quake-hit Hanwang Township of Mianzhu City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, May 17, 2008.(Xinhua Photo)

Another netizen "kg1658949" said the medical workers started the rescue efforts minute after the quake. Among them, some risked their lives to keep on operations in makeshift rooms, some left their family members alone, some even fainted after working non-stop for more than ten hours.

"They are performing their obligation of saving lives. Their heroic deeds prove they are 'soldiers in white,'" he said.

Netizen "Dan Dan Liu Shui" wrote that facing the disaster, the medical workers rushed to the lifeline in spite of threatening aftershocks. "It is the sense of duty and sense of mission that will make 'their white gowns whiter.'"

Netizen "Lin Jiang Mu Ye" voiced that the doctors and nurses not only saved the victims' lives, but, more inspiringly, welcomed the newborns on the frontline. "Special commendation should be given to those gynaecologists."

"It is them who brought the new lives to the world, which enables us to see a glimmer of hope at this disastrous moment."

Netizen "Guan Bo Yi" wrote if people honor the PLA soldiers as "the loveliest people of our age" for their heroic fighting by the rubbles or under toppled buildings, then the doctors and nurses who are saving the dying in the field hospitals deserve the title of "angels in white."

By now, the death toll from the quake stands at over 41,353, with another 274,683 injured and 32,666 missing. Sichuan has already transferred 1,973 injured to neighboring cities including Chongqing, Xi'an and Guangzhou and planned to transfer another 3,700 later on.

(By Lu Hui)

Editor:Zhang Ning