Tibetannet

With a sacred yearning for the pure land of Tibet, in May, 2017, Sun Ling, a doctor with the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases at Guangdong Province People’s Hospital, set off on her glorious and arduous road to aid Tibet.   

“From the first day I arrived in Nyingchi, I was attracted to and shocked by its landscape. When I walked into the Nyingchi City People’s Hospital, and I saw how my colleagues conscientiously treated the sick, I was even more moved and proud. I felt that everything here was fresh and vivid, full of vigor and passion,” Dr. Sun Ling said.  

“My specialty is congenital heart disease in children, and I’m mainly responsible for the screening and diagnosis of congenital heart disease in southeastern Tibet.” In order to help more children have better childhoods and blossom like the kelsang flower, meaning happy flower in Tibetan, Dr. Sun Ling was determined to work harder.  

As she was resting one afternoon shortly after she arrived, Sun Ling suddenly received a phone call.  

“Dr. Sun, we’ve received an infant patient who may have a heart disease, we will bring them to you right away.”

Not long after, a young Tibetan couple holding a swaddled baby in their arms and a blue oxygen bottle hurried in with panicked expressions.  

“I undid the baby’s swaddling wrap and saw a thin baby, her eyes closed and lips purple, her chest rising up and down, her nose agitated. Based on my intuition, I suspected that the child may have had severe pulmonary hypertension.” Just as Dr. Sun Ling thought, the child did indeed have severe pulmonary hypertension. “If she wasn’t treated as soon as possible, her condition would have worsened.”  

So, Sun Ling immediately developed a detailed treatment plan for the diagnosis and treatment of the patient. One month later, when the couple came back with the child for a follow-up consultation, the child’s pulmonary hypertension had significantly reduced. The child’s parents finally had smiles on their faces, and they kept giving the thumbs up to Sun Ling to express their thanks.  

In order to help more families with sick children understand congenital heart disease and to enable them to receive timely treatment, Sun Ling uses her rest time to conduct screenings and educate people about congenital heart disease, so that children with this disease will be able to get a timely diagnosis and treatment. 

In October of last year, with assistance from the Institute of Cardiovascular Disease at Guangdong Province People’s Hospital, Sun Ling and Zhang Zhiwei, a specialist at the Institute, successfully carried out three minimally invasive intervention surgery for congenital heart disease, in which Nyingchi City People’s Hospital became the first prefecture-level hospital in Tibet to successfully carry out such an operation, thus filling a gap in local interventional treatment of congenital heart disease. 

“Tibet is lovely, and the people are beautiful. As a doctor for Aid Tibet, I feel that my responsibilities are very great, and my task is arduous. I will do my best to care for every life here with my heart, my love, and my wisdom, to help the people live as long as the mountains and shine as brightly as the kelsang flowers.” So Sun Ling said, and so it has been done.