Across China: Chinese doctor fights cancer, hopes to return to Tunisia

Though she is confined to a hospital bed in Jiangxi Province, Guo Luping can't stop thinking about her patients in Tunisia.

"Before returning, I made a pledge to several pregnant women, promising to deliver their babies," said the obstetrician, who worked in Tunisia for over a year as a member of a Chinese medical team.

Forty-year-old Guo, a doctor in the maternity and child care center of Xinyu City, joined a medical aid program to Tunisia in November 2014. When she returned to China for a visit in January 2016, she was diagnosed with mid-to-late stage breast cancer.

Over the past few months, she has undergone a mastectomy and chemotherapy.

"It has been two months since I stopped working, and I can't wait to go back to Tunisia and perform operations," she said. She left her cell phone in Tunisia and booked a return ticket to the country before leaving.

"Women in Tunisia usually have four to five children each, but the country lacks obstetricians. In the obstetrics department I worked in, there were only three doctors, two of whom were Chinese," she said.

Guo gets excited when she talks about her busy life in Tunisia.

"Every day we were racing against time, and sometimes I would perform six or seven operations per day."

During her 14-month stay in Tunisia, Guo completed 496 operations.

In July 2015, Guo noticed a pain in her left breast, but she kept working for several months. "I had a feeling that the situation was not good, but I thought it was in an early stage, so I just wanted to stay there and try to help as many people as I could," She said.

After breast cancer surgery, Guo had to choose between having a venous port implanted into her right arm or her chest. Implanting it into her arm would have been covered by medical insurance, unlike the chest implant, but she didn't want her right hand to be affected. She opted for the chest, despite the added expense and pain. She has been doing exercises to strengthen her hands so she can return to her work.

Guo started her career as a doctor in 1997 and has participated in more than 7,000 operations.

Her husband, Liu Jun, has taken up housework duties.

"She has always been busy. I often could not get in touch with her because she would switch off her cell phone during operations, and I would try not to disturb her," he said.

Jiangxi Province started sending medical workers to Africa 43 years ago. In October, another group of medics from Jiangxi will fly to Tunisia.

Among them is Liu Fen, 45, who will take over Guo's position there. Liu and some other team members went to the hospital to see Guo, and the two hugged and exchanged kind words.

According to the National Health and Family Planning Commission, China's first international medical team was sent to Algeria in 1963. During the past five decades, some 24,000 medical workers have been sent to 66 countries and regions, providing services to 270 million people. More than 50 Chinese medical workers have sacrificed their lives abroad due to disease, injury, war and accidents. Endi