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When performing surgery on a patient, the ideal thing is to sedate them and complete the operation while they are lying still on the table. Unfortunately, there are situations where putting them under is out of the question. When young infants requires surgery, you often can’t fully anesthetize them because their bodies can’t handle it, which means the patient will often be awake or reacting to stimulus during the process.

When a baby was screaming during an operation in China, a nurse stepped in to calm the child down by breastfeeding the patient during surgery. The surgery was completed successfully and the father gave the nurse the nickname “Angel Nurse“. Join us for more details after the jump.

There is something instinctual in us that wants a crying baby to stop crying. Whether it’s annoyance, parental love, or human decency, we don’t like it when we hear that particular noise. It seems like they scream at a perfect pitch, making them impossible to ignore and extremely grating on our ears. It makes total sense though, since the baby needs something and has no other way to ask for it.

For a doctor performing major surgery on an infant, having the patient screeching is probably the last thing the surgeon needs when attempting to make an incision. Such was the case in Guangdong, China when one-month old Wei Wei had to undergo surgery to remove an abscess. Due to the age and size of little Wei Wei, only local anesthesia could be used, which left the patient still able to move around and cry during the surgery. When Wei Wei wouldn’t stop crying, Li Baoxia, a nurse at the hospital, stepped in to try to calm the overwhelmed baby by breastfeeding. The tactic worked like a charm and the patient fell asleep in the nurse’s arms. With young Wei Wei finally calm, the doctors were able to complete the operation without any other hitches.

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The doctor who performed the surgery was extremely touched, but it was Wei Wei’s father who was the most grateful. He personally wanted to thank the quick-thinking Li Baoxia, calling her “Angel Nurse” while sharing her heroics with everyone he knew and ensuring that the heart-warming story of outstanding care beyond the call of duty went viral all over the Internet. Most people applauded the nurse’s quick thinking, but a small group of people were incredibly worried about the sterility of the operation room and the kinds of things that could have been transferred to the baby because of her actions during the surgery.

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Thankfully there were no further complications and little Wei Wei appears to be doing well. What’s next for Angel Nurse? Clearly, just continuing to help the people of Guangdong, one crying baby at a time.

Source: Shanghaiist
Images: Sina