Eternally grateful: Mingmin (left) posing with Xinyu at the convention centre two days after the incident. — The Straits Times/ANN
SHANGHAI: A young trainee doctor in China has been hailed as a true “angel in white” for rushing to rescue a man who fainted on the street in the pouring rain.
The Suzhou University medical student was not in her white coat when she helped the man, though.
Instead, she was dressed in a white mullet dress, which became soiled when she knelt by the man’s side on the rain-soaked street.
The incident in Shanghai on July 21 was caught on camera and the videos have been viewed millions of times on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok.
Speaking to the Chinese media last Tuesday, Zhang Xinyu said she was dressed as a Japanese anime princess that night because she was working as an emcee at the Bilibili World anime convention.
After leaving the venue, she and her friends were caught in bad traffic. Her driver told her that a man appeared to have fainted on the busy road.
The young man, Zhang Mingmin, had also attended the convention.
Videos circulated online show the student from Shandong walking alone before suddenly falling forward, landing face first on the road and remaining motionless.
A few passers-by are seen carrying him out of a puddle and holding an umbrella over him as a woman in a white princess costume races towards them. She quickly applies pressure on the man’s chest, and as he regains consciousness, she asks him to take deep breaths.Xinyu is the heroine in the video. She said in a video on her Douyin account that Mingmin had fainted because of a low blood sugar level, as he had eaten just a biscuit that day.
She added that her friends called for an ambulance, and she went with Mingmin to the hospital, staying with him until a doctor confirmed that his vital signs had stabilised.
Two days after the incident, Mingmin returned to the convention centre to thank Xinyu, who reminded him to have enough rest and food.
In a video interview, Mingmin told Phoenix Weekly: “I can remember her tapping on my chest, getting me to wake up.
“If not for her, I really don’t know what would have happened to me. But I was saved, and by a pretty girl.
“Thinking back, I’m actually quite happy,” he said with a sheepish smile.
Xinyu, who had received her medical practitioner’s licence a year earlier but is still in training, said it was all about team effort.
“Some held umbrellas for us, some called the emergency hotline,” she said. “I did only what a doctor is meant to do.”
She added that she intends to stay on track to become a full-fledged doctor and wear the costume she truly wants to.“Cosplay is a hobby; saving lives is my instinct. My dream of putting on the white coat will never change,” she said. — The Straits Times/ANN
