At 16:25, March 29, the two planes carrying a total of 313 medical workers landed at the airport in succession, which is the last batch of Chongqing's medical workers returning from Wuhan.
On March 29, the last batch of Chongqing's medical team members who had gone to support Hubei Province is about to leave Wuhan. When the bus starts, a team member looks out of the window in tears. (Photo by Xie Zhiqiang)
Two fire engines spewed high jets of water on both sides of the plane to salute these heroes, and the water formed a "gate" for the plane to pass, which is the best reception of civil aviation.
According to the unified deployment of the CPC Central Committee, Chongqing has sent 1,636 people in 18 batches to Hubei, including 824 to Wuhan. From March 18, these medical workers began to leave Hubei in an orderly manner. As the last batch of 313 people arrived in Chongqing, the city's medical teams fulfilled their tasks satisfactorily. With all the patients being treated, none of the workers were infected.
Waving the national flag, medical team members step off the plane at Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport in turn on March 29. (Photo by Long Fan)
They all came back safely
On March 29, two planes carrying 313 people land at Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport, marking the return of the last batch of Chongqing's medical team members. Led by the troopers, the buses that carry them are leaving the airport. (Photo by Long Fan)
"My current state is completely different from that 45 days ago. I'm glad they all returned safely," said Xiao Mingchao, leader of the 8th batch of Chongqing's medical team to Hubei and Vice President of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University.
Zhou Fachun, deputy leader of the 8th batch of Chongqing's medical team to Hubei and ICU director, was discussing patients' treatment plans with team members.
"What I expect most is that all of our team members can have hot pot together when we come back to Chongqing, and everyone can be well relaxed," said Zhou Fachun, deputy leader of the 8th batch of Chongqing's medical team to Hubei and ICU director.
"After a good rest, I want to spend time with my kid, enjoy a meal made by my parents and watch my lover fall asleep peacefully beside me," said Wang Xiaowen, a doctor of cardiothoracic surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University.
The frontline work help me to grow
"My family and I have already planned to watch the oriental cherry in Wuhan next year," said Gong Jing, a nurse of the Fifth People's Hospital of Chongqing. The 22-year-old Gong is the youngest team member who was sent to Wuhan in the third batch and was benefited a lot from this experience.
At 00:00, February 5, the third batch of medical team members began their first night shift in Wuhan. A colleague told Gong Jing that she could do the auxiliary work in the sterile area with no need to enter the contaminated area.
"I want to fight with you all," Gong plucked up the courage to say. During the first hour after walking into the ward, she didn't even dare to talk to patients. However, when she changed the wrist strap for a patient, she received encouragement and thanks, and that trust kept her going. She told us, "Those days in Wuhan left me with a precious experience."
On March 29, a medical worker of Chongqing, who sits on a bus, expressed her affection for Wuhan with written words "I Love Wuhan" in Chinese. (Photo by Xie Zhiqiang)
"Thanks to the medical staff from Chongqing."
"When I got off the plane, I was very relaxed because I was back!" said Yao Yonggang, an associate chief physician of Chongqing Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. In a picture in his WeChat Moments, a young man was bowing low in the direction of the camera.
On February 20, the young man bowed to all of the third batches of medical workers from Chongqing at the gate of the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University. He was the first cured patient after the medical team entered and be stationed in the hospital and took over the ward areas.
When the patient was admitted, a computed tomography (CT) scan of his chest indicated a severe lung lesion, and he was expected to require more than 20 days of treatment before being discharged. Luckily, he was discharged from the hospital after 15 days of treatment with a combination of Chinese and Western medicines.
"The support from patients is the powerful motivation for us to fight the epidemic," said Fu Yueqiang, an associate chief physician of the Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. He remembered that their medical team received a heart-warming video on the Lantern Festival. A patient said in the video, "Thanks to the medical workers from Chongqing for your hard work. I'll never forget what you've done for us!"
Record the hard work of medical staff with a camera
There are four journalists in the last batch of team members who returned to Chongqing, and Xie Zhiqiang is the only press photographer who conducted interviews on the front line of Wuhan.
As a representative of Chongqing's media, Xie's image appeared on the LED screens of landmarks in the city. He told us, "This honor belongs to all journalists. I'm just a representative of them." In his view, what he did was just recording the work of frontline medical staff with his camera.
Be there with Wuhan from winter to spring
"What we initially faced was a frosty winter, but we welcomed a warm spring finally." When Lai Xiaodong was about to leave Wuhan, he wrote this sentence to commemorate the 57 days when he and his teammates fought against the epidemic in that city. Lai is the deputy leader of the third batch of the medical team and President of the Thirteenth People's Hospital of Chongqing.
The medical team made every effort to reduce the rate of deaths from the coronavirus disease in 2019. "We got up at 7:00 every day and went to bed after 1:00 on the next morning," said Lai. As the deputy team leader, he had a lot of work to do, such as hospital infection prevention and control, administration of the medical team, patient treatment, etc. He always did these things himself.
The efforts of the medical team had paid off. Their 12th and 13th ward areas had seen no death respectively for 42 and 30 consecutive days, which made the overall death rate in the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University be reduced to the intermediate level.
Winter will pass, and spring will come. As spring flowers bloom, life will return to normal.