Wuhan heart doctors heal far and wide

Phuntsok Yangdron, a 16-year-old Tibetan girl, received help from experts at Wuhan Asia Heart Hospital seven years ago.

In 2012, she was diagnosed with leakage in her left atrium and right heart crown. Later, she was transferred to Wuhan to receive heart surgery, and Tao was her surgeon.

The two met again this year when the hospital's expert team revisited Yangdron's hometown in Naidong county, Shannan, Tibet autonomous region. The teenage girl was excited to see Tao, she said. "I still remember how frightened I was when I went to Wuhan. I was 9 years old, alone and far away from home, and was about to receive my first ever heart surgery."

But Yangdron was lucky. "The doctors at the hospital were very kind to me," she said. "They comforted me, took care of me. They gave me the courage to do the surgery without too many worries."

After undergoing the minimally invasive surgery, Yangdron recovered quickly and the operation was a total success.