Slight Chinese nurse saves heavyweight patient from hospital window leap attempt
- Patient struggled and tried to bite her as she clung on to his arm for eight minutes until help arrived
A slightly-built female nurse managed to hang on to a heavyweight patient as he dangled out of a 13th floor hospital window while struggling to escape her grasp.
Nurse Dong Jing grabbed the 80kg (176 pounds) man’s arm and held on to him for eight minutes until rescuers arrived at the hospital in Liaoning province, northeastern China.
The 52-year-old patient, a farmer surnamed Fu, smashed the window with a chair and was grabbed by Dong – who weighs around 50kg (110 pounds) and is less than 160cm tall (5ft 2in) tall – as he jumped out.
Colleagues and patients in the ward rushed to her aid but all they could do was apply their own weight to Dong as she held on to the man with her right hand through the 50cm (19.6 inches) window space until security guards and police arrived.
The man, who was around 178cm (5ft 8in) tall, tried to break free from Dong’s grip, making several attempts to bite her arm, according to the Liaoshen Evening Newspaper.
“He tore three buttons off my undergarments with his teeth. Any longer, and it would have been too late,” Dong said.
“I’m not very strong. I was able to hold on to him, not because of my strength, but the conviction that I could not let him go,” she told local media.
“Although I’m a girl, there was only one thought in my mind: to save a life.”
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Dong, who has been a nurse at the General Hospital of Mining Industry Group Fuxin in Liaoning for 12 years, couldn’t feel anything in her swollen right arm after the incident, and was diagnosed with nerve injury.
Feng Chunwei, the hospital’s chief orthopaedic surgeon, said Dong’s recovery from the brachial plexus injury would take time, and that she would be monitored for the next three months.
Surgery was not ruled out if she did not recover in that time.
Although her heroic act may leave its mark on her right arm, Dong told local media she did not regret her actions.
“As long as I held on, there was a possibility he could live,” she said.
According to local media reports, the man had been under pressure after his wife passed away due to illness, leaving him to care for their disabled child.
