Mission of care

In June, when the Children's Hospital of Diamniadio in Dakar, Senegal, received a 4-year-old who had swallowed a whistle by accident about 20 days earlier, Cai Zhiliang, a doctor, knew urgent surgery was needed.

The child was coughing while wheezing, and the oxygen-saturation level had dropped to 70 percent.

It was a common surgery, but the lack of proper medical equipment made the situation a little difficult. Cooperating with anesthesiologist Huang Jianbin and physician Guo Lianghua, Cai removed the whistle from the child's windpipe in about 20 minutes.

The doctors are members of the 19th medical team dispatched from China to Senegal since November 2021.

As of March 31, the 14-member medical team had provided 7,058 outpatient services, completed 3,150 surgeries and 1,039 cases of giving anesthesia.