A doctor whose text message prompted her colleagues including whistle-blower Li Wenliang to raise the coronavirus alarm has spoken out about receiving ‘extremely harsh reprimand’ by her hospital for her behaviour.
The ER doctor, Ai Fen, criticised the management of Wuhan Central Hospital for dismissing the early warnings of the coronavirus in an interview published yesterday by a Chinese magazine.
She also admitted ‘feeling regretful about not speaking out more’ after four of her colleagues, including Dr Li, had contracted the virus and died while fighting the outbreak.
A doctor whose text messages prompted whistle-blower doctors including Li Wenliang to raise the coronavirus alarm has spoken out about being punished by her hospital for sharing a SARS-like patient’s report with her colleagues. Ai Fen is pictured here sitting at her office
The Wuhan medic, Ai Fen, criticised the hospital bosses for dismissing the early warnings of the coronavirus in a feature article published online yesterday by Chinese magazine People
Ai Fen admitted ‘feeling regretful about not speaking out more’ after four of her colleagues, including Li Wenliang, contracted the virus and passed away while fighting the outbreak
‘If I had known what would have happened today, I wouldn’t have cared about the reprimand. I would have told whoever and wherever I want,’ said Dr Ai.
The doctor’s interview was posted on Tuesday but quickly retracted by its publisher, People (Renwu) Magazine, from social media platforms.
On 30 December, Dr Ai received a patient’s report labelled as ‘SARS coronavirus’. She said she broke out into a cold sweat after reading the lab results several times.
Ai Fen, whose text prompted whistle-blower Li Wenliang to sound the coronavirus alarm says her hospital punished her for sharing information on SARS-like disease last year
The SARS epidemic 17 years ago infected more than 8,000 people worldwide and killed over 800, according to the World Health Organisation.
The medic then circled the word ‘SARS’ and sent a picture of the report to one of her former classmates and a group chat within her department.
Dr Ai said she also immediately alerted the hospital authorities about the case.
‘Later that evening, the stuff was shared all over the place with screenshots of the report bearing my red circle. [These platforms] included the chatting group, which Li Wenliang shared the information with,’ Dr Ai told the magazine, ‘I thought something bad is going to happen.’
Two days later, the Wuhan medic was summoned by the head of the hospital’s disciplinary inspection committee.
Dr Ai said she faced ‘unprecedented, extremely harsh reprimanded’ and was accused of ‘spreading rumours as a professional’ by the hospital’s officials.
Li Wenliang, 34, succumbed to the deadly contagion in the early hours of Friday morning local time, despite attempts to resuscitate him. The ophthalmologist caught the public’s attention after he was reprimanded by police and accused of spreading ‘fake news’ for warning on social media of ‘SARS at a Wuhan seafood market.’
Dr Zhu Heping (left) and Dr Mei Zhongming (right) both passed away after contracting the coronavirus while fighting the outbreak in February. They both worked with Li Wenliang
‘I was in shock,’ she continued. ‘What did I do wrong? Knowing the fact that a significant virus has been found on a patient, how can I not tell when another doctor asks about it?’
Ophthalmologist Li Wenliang was among eight people who shared Dr Ai’s picture before being reprimanded by police and accused of spreading ‘fake news’ for warning the public of ‘SARS at a Wuhan seafood market’ on social media.
The 34-year-old medic succumbed to the deadly contagion in the early hours of Friday morning local time despite attempts to resuscitate him.
Three other doctors who worked along with late heroic whistle-blower Dr Li Wenliang have also died of the disease after contracting it while fighting the outbreak.
Dr Ai said she doesn’t think of herself as a whistle-blower: ‘I was the one handing out the whistles.’
‘This incident has shown that everyone needs to have their own thoughts because someone has to step up to speak the truth,’ she added. ‘The world needs different kinds of voices.’
The original article has been removed from the magazine’s Wechat account but web users have been posting screenshots of it online.
It comes after Chinese President Xi Jinping has visited Wuhan yesterday for the first time since the city emerged as the centre of the coronavirus epidemic in January.
The timing of Xi’s visit indicates that China is ready to declare victory over the health crisis, which has killed at least 3,158 people in the nation and 4,408 worldwide, according to experts.
Dr Liu, the head of Wuhan Wuchang Hospital at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, died of the disease at around 11am on February 18 after catching it at work, health officials confirmed
Worldwide, there are over 120,000 people have been diagnosed with the deadly disease. There are 382 confirmed cases in the UK and six people have died.
Many of the UK’s cases have been among recent visitors to Italy or from people who caught it inside the UK since Italy’s outbreak began.
Health minister Nadine Dorries has today revealed one of her staff has now ‘gone down’ with coronavirus after she tested positive and went into self-isolation for the next fortnight as a MP she met last week was told by the NHS to stay at home.
A picture released by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV through its official Weibo account shows President Xi delivering a speech at Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan yesterday
Worldwide, there are over 120,000 people have been diagnosed with the deadly disease