Gasping China surgeon collapses on floor after blowing air into lungs of toddler for 30 minutes during life-saving operation

Doctors cleared his airway and emptied his stomach, but during a check-up the next morning they discovered some nut pieces in his lungs and decided to operate to remove them.

On the operating table, Zhong noticed that the oxygen levels in the boy’s blood were too low, so the doctor removed his mask and began blowing air into the child’s lungs through a bronchoscope.

During the 30-minute-long surgery, Zhong switched between performing the operation and blowing the air.

When the procedure was almost over, the surgeon told his colleagues: “I can’t carry on.” He then fell on to the floor of the operating room.

“At that time, I felt a sensation of suppression in my chest and numbness in my limbs. I was sweating a lot and my clothes and gloves were sticking to me,” Zhong said later.

The surgeon regained consciousness after his colleagues gave him some liquid glucose and oxygen, and his first thought was to ask about his young patient.

“I am fine. Please check if the boy’s pulmonary ventilation volume is all right,” he said.

The surgery was a success after Zhong and his colleagues cleared at least 10 pieces of chopped nuts from the baby’s lungs.

The child’s grateful parents sobbed and thanked the diligent doctor and his team profusely when they heard the news.

Stories of doctors going the extra mile and using their initiative to save a patient’s life while sometimes risking their own health, regularly make headlines in China.

Two years ago, a pair of surgeons rigged up makeshift surgical apparatus and performed a life-saving emergency procedure when a passenger was taken ill on a flight from Guangzhou to New York.

The elderly man had a swollen stomach and enlarged prostate, so the doctors – one from southern Guangdong province and the other from Hainan province in the same part of China – siphoned off his urine through straws.