Three doctors perform 32-hour surgery in Fujian

Pictures of three doctors exhausted and lying on a hospital floor in southeast China’s Fujian province recently went viral online.

Recently, pictures of three doctors exhausted and lying on the floor went viral online. The three are doctors from a hospital in southeast China’s Fujian province, who finished a marathon surgery lasting 32 hours.

The doctors had just finished a surgery that lasted 32 hours. The surgery began at 8.30 AM last Saturday, and ended at sunset the next day. 

Dr. Chen Jianping explained the operation to remove multiple tumors from a patient.

"The patient had both an aneurysm and brain-stem hemangioblastoma. We needed to remove both tumors in one surgery. This required six different surgical procedures to be conducted on the patient. It can be difficult, risky, and time-consuming. If you are removing one tumor, and the other one breaks, it can be fatal," Dr. Chen said.

During the surgery, doctors only managed to take two hour breaks, only in turns. The 32-hour operation broke all records set at the hospital.

"The surgery went on for so long, I started to wonder about the doctors’ physical strength. What if they wear out?" Huang Baoqin, one of the patient’s family members, said.

The operation was successful. Once over, the three surgeons collapsed on the ground. And their pictures went viral on social networks in China. Some netizens said that the surgeons were trading their own lives for the patient’s. But doctors say that long operations are very common for surgeons.

"It isn’t only me who works hard to treat patients. There so many surgeons just like me who are not seen," Dr. Chen said.

Dr. Chen says that if any good has to come from the pictures on social media, it would be a better understanding and communication between doctors and patients. 

source: http://english.cntv.cn/2014/06/27/VIDE1403811453173288.shtml