Chinese woman has sutures from double eyelid surgery removed at community gate during Covid-19 lockdown
- A woman who had undergone double eyelid surgery and was waiting to have the sutures removed found herself unexpectedly under Covid-19 lockdown
- She eventually was able to get them taken out by a doctor at the gate of her residential community in Shanghai
The woman, whose name was not released, had the procedure in the middle of March at a cosmetic medical institute, news portal D-video reported.
Shanghai reported 50 coronavirus patients and 3,450 asymptomatic cases on Sunday. A total of 14,376 local asymptomatic cases are still under medical observation, according to the municipal health authority.
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When the time came to remove the woman’s sutures last week, her residential block had been put under lockdown as authorities tried to curb the spread of coronavirus in the city.
She became anxious two days later when the official in charge of her community told her the lockdown order could not be lifted yet.
“I am not allowed to leave my residential block. Do you think I can postpone the time to remove the sutures? I feel they have been embedded in my flesh,” she asked her doctor.
The doctor, surnamed Zhou, said the sutures had to be removed urgently. The doctor first suggested sending her a surgical blade and tweezers and asked her to find someone in her community to remove the sutures for her.
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When non-absorbable sutures are used, they are removed after the wound has had a chance to heal. In most cases, it takes about a week for the tissues to connect and form a bridge between the two edges of the wound. Once the tissue has adequately healed, the stitches can be removed. The wound will continue to heal once the stitches are removed. When the stitches remain in the skin for too long, it can result in additional scarring.
After the woman failed to find anyone to help, Zhou decided to go to her residential complex and do it himself at the gate of as he was not allowed to enter during lockdown.
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He adopted self-protection measures such as wearing a mask and brought with him alcohol disinfection pads, tweezers and a surgical blade.
“I told her we needed to follow her community’s rules that means we couldn’t go in and out of the complex. But we could have it done at the gate,” Zhou said.
He said it was difficult for him to carry out the procedure when both of them were standing with a gate between them because his hands were shaking.
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Zhou told the woman to put her chin on the complex’s lockdown barrier to help stabilise her face and keep it still during the removal.
He said as a doctor, he received the Covid-19 nucleic acid test every day at his institute, and the client got her daily test in her community. Both of them wore masks during the procedure.
“I’ve tried my best to help her and in the meantime I’ve taken the virus infection risk into consideration,” said Zhou.
