ZHENGZHOU, July 24 – The Fuwai Central China Cardiovascular Hospital in Zhengzhou was seriously deluged during the heavy rainstorm battering the capital city of Central China’s Henan province from 18th to 21st of July. The once busy hospital square now turned into a vast pond of 1.5 meters deep, and the 19-floor surgery building was like an island in the sea. Nearly 5,000 persons including medical staff and patients were trapped in the building and in an urgency for rescue.
Under the unified command of the disaster relief front commanding post of the PLA Central Theater Command, crack troops from the Rocket Force, the 83rd Group Army, the Joint Logistic Support Force, the Henan Provincial Military Command and the first mobile corps under the Chinese People's Armed Police (PAP) Force, advanced towards the Fuwai Hospital from different directions on July 21.
The evacuation of trapped patients began from 6 a.m. on July 22, in batches, and most of the patients were transferred to the Henan Provincial People's Hospital and will be received further treatment there. By about 13:00 p.m., the total number of people participating in the patients rescue in the hospital exceeded 3,000. Thanks to the joint efforts by soldiers, fire and rescue workers and local emergency forces, the transfer operation became more efficient. As of 7:30 p.m. on July 22, the PLA and PAP rescuers successfully transferred nearly 5,000 people from the hospital to safe places, among them, 1183 were patients, and the rest were patients' families and medical personnel.
