A surgeon from China who’s currently a visiting scholar at the Medical University of South Carolina is raising money for colleagues dealing with a respiratory virus in Wuhan, the center of an outbreak. The World Health Organization calls the infectious illness novel coronavirus, or 2019-nCoV.

 

Changhai Li is a liver surgeon from Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, in Charleston for a research project. He’s in touch with colleagues back in Wuhan and plans to return there this summer.

 

As a friend translated for him, Li described his emotions. “I feel sad about the way things are unfolding over there. My colleagues are working on ground zero. And I feel for them. My thoughts go to them and I want to do whatever I can to help them in a meaningful way.”

 

Media reports have noted that hospitals have been running low on supplies as they take care of more and more patients suffering from the coronavirus. So Li started a fundraiser on the website Go Fund Me with a goal of $10,000 to buy protective masks, gowns and goggles for his hospital.

 

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