Like heroic brother, nurse steps up in time of need

"Nurse Du Fujia" has become a hot topic on social media platform Weibo amid the nation's fight against the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The post about her has received around 550 million page views and more than 100,000 comments.

Du, 27, a nurse from Meitan County People's Hospital in Guizhou province, aroused people's attention partly due to her elder brother Du Fuguo, a hero who lost his hands and eyesight when a bomb exploded during a mine-clearing operation in October 2018. He was honored as a Heroic Demining Soldier by the Central Military Commission in July.

Du is working at the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University in Wuhan, Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak in the country, as a member of the Guizhou medical team helping Wuhan fight the virus.

"Just as minefields were my brother's battlefield, the hospital is mine amid the fight against the novel coronavirus outbreak," she said. "It is a medic's duty to treat patients. I'm here just to answer the call of duty."

As the disease spread from Wuhan to other areas across China at the end of January, Du volunteered to work at the fever clinic of her hospital in Meitan county, which is among the 183 facilities designated to treat pneumonia patients in Guizhou.

She is among the first batch of medical staff at the hospital involved in combating the growing coronavirus outbreak.

When the hospital called on its employees to join the province's medical team to help Wuhan, Du volunteered her services.

She said her decision was supported by her elder brother Du Fuguo. "He is worried about my safety, but he said I'm doing the right thing," Du said.

She arrived in Wuhan on Feb 21 with her colleagues and was sent to the intensive care unit of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University.

Du said that there is a lot for her to learn here as she has only been working for five years as a nurse for the emergency department, but she has the confidence to take care of her patients while protecting herself.

"Though I have a different position from my elder brother, we both believe in loving our country," she said.

A netizen named Super Lingongzi commented that "they are ordinary brother and sister, but they did something extraordinary."