Hong Kong nurse honoured with top medal for 15 years of life-saving work

In a makeshift hospital ward in Rafah, Gaza, reserved for the most severely wounded and dying patients, Hong Kong nurse Walter Leung Wai-yin, 66, walked up to a woman whose face was partially torn in an explosion.

The woman was classified as a “blue case”, which indicates catastrophic injuries that are considered beyond saving. In such cases, medical professionals shift to end-of-life care, focusing on reducing pain with the heaviest dosage of morphine.

“Her skull was gone and her brain was visible. Blood was all over her hair and face. She was still screaming and breathing,” he said.

“So I brought my British nurse partner and wiped the blood off her body. You could still smell the gunpowder … We also bandaged her head so that she would look better when her family came to see her.”

Leung has been awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal, the highest international distinction for nurses, for his 15 years of volunteer work with the Red Cross in disaster situations.