Village doctor's work on lake and land leaves lasting mark

At peak time, more than 20 babies were delivered with Xie's help in a year. Almost all of the villagers under age 20 were born with her help.

Xie remembers the first child she helped deliver.

"It was Aug 27, 1992. The mother had endured labor pains for a long time. I accompanied her from day to night, talking to her continuously and comforting her. When the 4-kilogram boy was born, her family members set off firecrackers to celebrate."

Before she came, children were delivered in an old-fashioned way by older female villagers without proper disinfection methods.

"The mother was less scared after knowing I was giving her more professional medical treatment," Xie said.

During her 25 years working on the lake, Xie received more than 30,000 patients at the clinic, paid visits to more than 3,000 patients at their homes and transferred more than 100 pregnant women to hospitals to give birth. She said she thinks she has traveled some 80,000 kilometers on the water during that time－about twice the length of Earth's equator.

Xie recalled walking 5 km one winter on the lake, which had frozen, to treat a pregnant woman who had fever. Another time, a villager burned his house boat by accident, and Xie invited him to live in the clinic.

"One year, a drought hindered the transportation of villagers. Learning a liver cancer patient was in urgent need of drugs, Doctor Xie walked several hours in deep mud to get to his home," said Liu, the village official.

"Villagers felt more secured with Doctor Xie to help them."

Xie, 51, has been honored as one China's "most beautiful village doctors" and as a National Model Worker because of her contributions to rural medical health. She was also a deputy to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

In the 1990s, childbirth cost 20 yuan and the consultation fee was 1 yuan at her clinic.

"Though there was not much income, it was good to work among fishermen. They would bring us dried fish and invite us for dinner during festivals," Xie recalled.

In 2016, the city initiated a program to ban fishing in Honghu Lake to restore its ecology. Encouraged to live and work on shore, 2,640 fisherman from 930 families left the lake.

With the support of the local government, Xie opened a clinic near the villagers' new community. Besides seeing patients, she also helps fishermen learn new skills and find jobs.

"Doctor Xie would be there every time we need her," said villager Li Zhenhao, 66.

Li was diagnosed with schistosomiasis last year, a disease caused by parasitic worms, and is getting treatment from Xie. He said she helped deliver all his children.

"For all these years, we have gotten along like a family. She is the guardian angel of us fishermen," he said.