On the afternoon of May 16, in the emergency room of the 956th Hospital of the Linzhi Army in Tibet, the weak border guards slowly opened their eyes. Seeing that he was finally out of danger of life, the medical staff guarding the bed took a long sigh of relief. They hugged together excitedly, and bursts of applause and cheers broke out at the scene.
Three days ago, the soldiers guarding a border post on the Motuo Snow Mountain at an altitude of nearly 4,000 meters were highly susceptible to catching a cold, and subsequently caused high altitude pulmonary edema. The Tibet Military Region immediately activated the helicopter emergency medical rescue mechanism. A rescue helicopter carrying three medical personnel traversed the snowy mountains and clouds, and staged a "speed of life and death" at an altitude of more than 5,000 meters.
At 11 noon on May 13th, the combat duty room of the Tibet Military Region received an emergency call from the Linzhi military division for help-a border guard fighter had difficulty breathing after catching a cold, coughed light red foamy sputum, oxygen saturation was less than 60%, and his consciousness was indifferent. Symptoms, the team doctors diagnosed with high altitude pulmonary edema, may be complicated by cerebral edema, at any time life-threatening.
A life and death rescue was launched immediately. At present, the mainland is already in early summer, but the sentry point on the Himalayas is still icy and snowy, and the roads connecting with the outside are covered with thick snow, and the injured cannot be evacuated in time. The Helicopter Medical Emergency Rescue Command, which was set up specifically to rescue the superb, quickly started operations. The Tibet Linzhi Army Subdivision, a certain Army Aviation Brigade and the Army 956 Hospital successively received orders to jointly launch a three-dimensional rescue.
Pilot Sun Chao trot all the way to board the helicopter. After receiving the mission command, he competed with the crew comrades in minutes and completed the route design in just half an hour. Meteorological data show that the weather on the route was bad on that day, making it unsuitable for flight. As an old pilot who flew on the snowy plateau for 12 years, Sun Chao understood that the takeoff time should be adjusted in theory, but his comrades were in a hurry.
At 1:50 noon, the rescue helicopter decisively lifted off, whistling and flying towards the cloudy sky. Soon, bean-sized raindrops surrounded the fuselage with snow particles. Twenty minutes later, when passing Duoxiona Pass, the clouds became thicker and heavier, and it was difficult for helicopters to cross. Sun Chao felt as if he was flying into a chaotic darkness.
In order to prevent accidents when the plane hit the mountain, the crew had to return.
"What should I do if the wounded's condition gets worse?" After landing, the crew went directly to the preparation room and redesigned the flight plan. On the other side, three experts from the Army's 956th Hospital conducted remote consultations with the military doctors accompanying the post through satellite phones. At 4 pm on the same day, a ground rescue team walked towards the Snow Mountain outpost as a second option. They received the order to "arrival at the outpost within 24 hours and take back the superb", and usually take three or four days on foot .
That night, Sun Chao and his crew comrades were preparing for battle until 12 o'clock in the middle of the night. At 9 o'clock in the morning on May 14, the morning mist had just dispersed, and the rescue helicopter took off again with three medical personnel and emergency medical equipment. The crew was gratified that this time "the heavens made beauty", a "little mouth" was broken in the clouds, "just enough to allow the next plane to pass through".
Following the cloud cave all the way, the helicopter quickly climbed to an altitude of 6000 meters. A lack of oxygen began to clearly appear in the cabin, but no one touched the several oxygen tanks that were carried randomly. In fact, they couldn't take care of this. Nurse Wu Hua and two other doctors were nervously preparing for the rescue. Sun Chao focused all his attention on the mission-crossing the cloudy canyon at full speed and striving for early life Receive the wounded.
As early as the beginning of this year, the Tibet Military Region established a three-level helicopter medical rescue emergency response link of "first diagnosis of medical doctors-army combat duty room-military area combat duty room". Such training has gradually become normalized. But in the real face of life and death rescue, Sun Chao always felt that "it is still slow, but faster."
After more than 40 minutes, the helicopter landed slowly on the tarmac near the outpost, and the airflow generated by the propeller rolled up in the sky. Before the fuselage was stabilized, the hatch opened, and the doctors jumped off the plane. Not far away, the sentinel warrior Zhou Lei and his comrades stood up and ran slowly over the kneeless snow.
The tarmac was swept out by Zhou Lei and other comrades at the sentinel the previous day. The outpost is located in the uninhabited area of Medog, with mountains and snow everywhere. In order to make the transfer the next day faster, the officers and soldiers of the outpost probed the surrounding area and selected this relatively flat place as the landing point. Everyone cleaned the snow more than 1 meter deep in advance.
"Quick! Get on the plane!" "Be careful, lighter!" Someone commanded loudly that Gao Chao was successfully transferred to the plane. Watching the helicopter door slowly close, Zhou Lei sighed slightly, "I feel saved when the plane comes."
After 10 minutes, the helicopter took off and returned. As soon as the cabin door was closed, the accompanying physician Deng Yongjie immediately began to check the superbness. "He has peeled his entire face, his lips are white, and he is shaking with two layers of cotton jackets on." Determine the rescue plan, perform oxygen therapy for the superb, and establish venous access.
With superb frostbite on both hands, Wu Hua could not find blood vessels. Too late to think, this petite girl took a superb hand, held it in both hands and rubbed it repeatedly to expand the blood vessels. It took her 10 minutes to finally heat up the "ice-like hand".
Wu Hua half-kneeled in the shaking cabin to complete the puncture. She used her fingertips to grope over and over again, perceiving the superb blood vessels, and finally "finished blood in one shot".
The superb blood oxygen saturation picked up a little bit, and the flying height of the plane slowly declined. Outside the cabin, the clouds are still erratic, and the mountains are hidden in the clouds. Against the fatigue and unresponsiveness caused by the lack of oxygen, Sun Chao forced himself to concentrate, playing the "twelve points" spirit to make the flight more stable.
"While worrying that the altitude difference will aggravate the wounded's condition, while worrying about the weather changes delaying time." Sun Chao recalled, "I have no other thoughts in my mind, thinking that he must be taken to the hospital safely."
At 11:38 noon, the helicopter landed steadily on the apron of a station in Linzhi, Tibet, and Gao Chao was immediately transferred to the Army's 956th Hospital for rescue.
The crew calculated afterwards that the wounded escort took only 2 hours and 41 minutes, saving nearly 70 hours compared to the past, and the flight time was nearly 1 hour faster than normal.
More detailed examination results came out quickly. Due to the timely transportation, the superb did not have cerebral edema, and the condition was also controlled after continuous oxygen inhalation. "Prime time! Successful!" The doctors sighed and hurried across the corridor in preparation for the next treatment.
After walking off the helicopter, Sun Chaochang breathed a sigh of relief, his hands were even sweaty. "Finally, there is no chaos." The northern man smiled easily. "We just want to tell Wei Guo's comrade-in-arms: No matter where you are, we will protect your safety."
On May 16, the rales of the superb lungs of the border guards completely disappeared, leaving the danger of life. The news sent back to the sentinel immediately, and Zhou Lei burst into tears. He remembered the moment when he saw the helicopter coming from afar and slowly landing, "It was an exciting passage of life in the air, then you deeply realized that the comrades were beside you."
China Youth Daily · China Youth Daily reporter Zheng Tianran correspondent Yan Liang Source: China Youth Daily