A Wuhan Union Hospital nurse died after falling off the hospital building on July 29. Staff have confirmed the incident but didn’t provide further details.
According to online information, the deceased, surnamed Zhang, was the mother of a young child under the age of two. She was a nurse in the cardiology department and had worked at the hospital for nearly five years. When Zhang’s parents sought the facts about her death, the hospital claimed that the surveillance camera was broken and so it couldn’t provide any evidence.
However, there were many posts on Weibo detailing how Zhang complained about the working conditions when treating coronavirus patients before her death.
According to a private Weibo message dated Jan. 26, Zhang had sent a message to the nurses in the hospital demanding replacement of head nurse Liu Yilan at least a day before the posting. Liu was said to have provided almost no training to the nurses about how to take a sample for nucleic acid test, using the excuse of extreme scarcity of personal protective equipment (PPE).
She suggested that all nurses resign unless a responsive director of the nursing department was in place.
According to the message, Zhang worked in the isolation ward and Liu had only provided a training video to the nurses who were told to simply copy the sampling procedure directly on their own.
Zhang wrote, “[When battling the coronavirus] the doctors are said to be the greatest we have. I want to tell everyone that no doctor goes in the isolation ward. They have nurses conduct the regular rounds using an intercom to receive orders from the physicians, who stay in the relatively clean offices. The nurses in our quarantine area work three shifts. We are here for at least eight hours a day, are not allowed to leave the area, and have no time to eat, drink, or take a break.”
She further explained, “I am not making excuses to escape this war. I am willing to be a fighter and have always tried to stand in the forefront. But I want to be a fighter with body armor and bullets in the gun! Be a warrior and not a human shield!”
Another Weibo post shows the day Zhang submitted her resignation, indicating that she wasn’t holding back in fighting the pandemic, but wasn’t willing to die for such leadership. She felt sad for the hospital staff and was willing to speak out for all the frontline nurses on her last day at work.
Another Weibo screenshot provided other details: “During the pandemic, many nurses were infected but didn’t receive treatment. The nurse (Zhang) had reported her head nurse’s inaction and identified her by name. Not only was the issue not resolved, but upper level management talked to Zhang every day. She couldn’t stand the pressure and jumped off the building. The hospital hasn’t provided any surveillance video to the family of the deceased. The truth (about how Zhang died) is not known.”
Social media followers of the incident showed great concern in their Weibo posts.
One wrote, “The surveillance camera is broken when there’s an incident. Do they think we are three-year-old kids?”
Another wrote, “As a hospital employee, I have never known the surveillance camera to be broken. In the past, I always brought patients to retrieve the surveillance recording, which would require a signature by the superior. There must be something fishy!”
Someone also commented, “You survived the pandemic, but not the director of the nursing department.”
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