"
Heng Yonghong, 27, a survivor of the 8.0-magnitude Wenchuan earthquake on May 12, 2008, now works at the accounting department at Chongqing Emergency Medical Center, where she received treatment after the deadly event.
"My job now is to organize the receipts. It may sound boring to many people but I really like it," she said. "Being alive is the happiest thing for me."
The earthquake killed 69,226 people and left 17,923 missing.
Ten years ago, Heng was a first grade student at Beichuan High School in Beichuan county, southwest China's Sichuan province. After the deadly event, she was trapped under rubble for over 30 hours. When the rescue team pulled her out of the collapsed teaching building, her legs were injured so much it was thought they would need to be amputated. Only 25 out of 60 students from her class survived.
Heng was soon transferred to nearby Chongqing to get better medical treatment. Chongqing Emergency Medical Center gathered a team of 12 experts to treat earthquake patients. Shi Ruofei, then the director of the medical center and the leader of the earthquake medical team, decided to do his utmost to save the young student's legs.
"She was so young then. Even if we could keep only one leg for her, her life would be greatly different," Shi recalled.
Fortunately, thanks to careful treatment and Heng's strong desire to survive, the student returned to Sichuan two months later with both legs intact.
The tragedy made Heng much stronger. She continued study with former classmates at a temporary tent campus and took part in the national college entrance exam in 2010. Regarding Chongqing as her second hometown, Heng applied to Yangtze Normal University to study accounting.
In 2014, Heng passed the recruitment test for the hospital and became an employee at the place where her life was saved.
Now she lives in a rented apartment with a colleague near the hospital. She likes to play table tennis and practice yoga. She still keeps in touch with the volunteers who helped her in Chongqing.
Originally published on
chinadaily.com.cn in May,2018
Written by Tan Yingzi
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