Chinese Doctor Who Had Postponed Wedding To Take Care Of Coronavirus Patients Dies Of Infection

In a tragic incident, a young Chinese doctor who had put duty before his personal life has died of the deadly Coronavirus infection. Peng Yinhua, a doctor of a Wuhan hospital had postponed his wedding to treat patients infected with the deadly coronavirus.

Peng, a respiratory acute care medical professional, became infected while working to combat the novel coronavirus at the First People's Hospital of Jiangxia District of Wuhan.

The 29-year-old was hospitalized on January 25 and transferred to the Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital for treatment on January 30. He died on Thursday night, according to the health bureau.

"Peng Yinhua, a frontline doctor at Jiangxia First Hospital in virus epicenter #Wuhan, died of #COVID19 on Thursday night. He had earlier delayed his wedding as he wanted to treat patients with the disease at hospital," state-run Global Times said in a Tweet.

According to Xinhua, Peng had planned to marry his partner during the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, but they agreed to delay the ceremony so that he could help treat patients at the center of the outbreak. Peng never even had the chance to send out his wedding invitations, which still remain in his office drawer.

AFP

Peng's death came just a few days after Liu Zhiming, the director of Wuchang Hospital in Wuhan died of the infection.

The most tragic death, however, was that of Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist from Wuhan. Even before the world or the Chinese authorities knew about the outbreak, Dr. Li had warned his colleagues that a 1993 sars-like virus was spreading the region and asked his friends on a WeChat group to be careful.

Instead of taking note of it, someone informed this to the authorities who accused Dr. Li of fear mongering and made him apologize. This was back in December. But by the time the authorities woke up, it was too late and by then hundreds had died in Wuhan.

REUTERS

On January 10, Li posted on Weibo saying that he started coughing, the next day he had a fever and two days later he was in the hospital. He was diagnosed with the coronavirus on 30 January and died on February 6.

The increasing number of deaths among medical staff is once again showing the dangerous conditions that they are working under. Chinese authorities say more than 1,700 medical workers have been infected, mostly in Wuhan.

Medical staff have complained about shortages of face masks and protective clothing, with some even wearing makeshift bodysuits and continuing to work despite showing respiratory symptoms.