Health worker awarded for improving lives in county

Fulfilling her long-standing commitment to improving healthcare in less-developed regions, Lu Shengmei, 80, received the national honorary title of People's Health Worker from President Xi Jinping at a grand ceremony on Sunday.

Spending her whole career in Jiaxian county in Northwest China's Shaanxi province, Lu spearheaded efforts to promote safer childbirth practices and reduce infant mortality, including establishing the first independent pediatrics department at the People's Hospital of Jiaxian. The department has cultivated over 50 pediatric physicians and nurses.

When Lu first arrived in the county deep in the mountains in Shaanxi in 1968, she was a 24-year-old graduate from one of the top medical schools in Beijing. Initially, she was frustrated by the desolate landscape and dilapidated facilities.

"A stretch of rugged dirt road led to the county hospital, which was merely two old cave dwellings with peeling walls," she said. "Drinking water had to be carried daily by mules from nearby rivers, and I had a hard time adjusting to local food cooked in pungent mutton fat."

But what truly wrenched her heart at that time, she said, were the backward and dangerous practices of local midwives and the hardships faced by expectant mothers and newborns in Jiaxian.

"I once encountered a woman in labor. She was lying on a sandbag, and her family members had to pull her hair hard to prevent her from going into shock," Lu said. "Another villager was about to cut the umbilical cord with a pair of old, rusty scissors."

Lu quickly took out sterilized equipment from her bag, cut the cord and wrapped the baby carefully. Around the same time, she made up her mind to stay in Jiaxian for as long as it took to promote modern delivery methods and improve the overall health of local people.

Many questioned her decision to work in the mountainous, barren county. A native of Beijing, Lu said that her family members tried several times to persuade her to return to the capital. While studying in both Beijing and Xi'an, the provincial capital of Shaanxi, her instructors also offered to help her transfer to larger urban hospitals.

"Having witnessed the dearth of doctors and medicines in Jiaxian and the harm caused by outdated customs among the local people, I believed that I was needed there more than anywhere else," she said.

Lu said she was also deeply touched by the local people's pure, genuine hearts.

"When I suffered from severe anemia, they rushed to donate blood. A mother whose child received my treatment pulled an all-nighter to knit a pair of cloth shoes for me," she said. "Some patients near the end of their lives would call my name and entrust their children to me."

After retirement, she continued to provide free medical consultations as a volunteer and formed a local volunteer association comprising seniors and retirees like her.

"I see myself as a kite, and whenever a patient in need pulls on the string, I instantly fly to their direction," she said.

Thanks to improved transportation networks, an increasing number of rural clinics and the rollout of various medical insurance programs, Lu said the villagers have had easier access to standard medical treatment and have been lifted out of poverty.

"Because of partnerships between rural and urban hospitals, as well as the application of telemedicine, local farmers can also seek medical consultations from top doctors at major hospitals," she added.