Recalling the "night of blood" four days ago, Duolukun Maimaitiming, a Uygur doctor at the People's Hospital in Urumqi, was agitated, and his hands began to quiver.
"The hospital was flooded with patients drenched in blood that night," he said. "It was horrible".
Without knowing how the riot had happened, Duolukun joined his colleagues in treating patients in the emergency room.
"I see only patients," he said. "There is no ethnic difference in my eyes. To save lives is my duty."
More than 300 people, of Han and Uygur ethnicities, who were injured in the deadly violence on Sunday in Urumqi, have been receiving medical treatment at the hospital where Duolukun works. The "night of blood" he referred to has left 156 dead and more than 1,000 others injured.
"Patients kept being sent to the hospital," recalled Zhou Caixia, a head nurse who has been working for four straight days with only hours of sleep. "Doctors and nurses have been living in the hospital treating the patients over the past four days."
Zhou said patients, either of Han or Uygur ethnicities, have been taken good care of in the hospital.
The woman, who now has dark pouches under her eyes, said she always kept smiling in front of every patient she treated to give them warmth and strength.
"We have to make sure that we are emotionally stable before we can help others," she said.
"I can feel the warmth," said Asiya, a 40-year-old Uygur woman who helped save more than a dozen Han people by showing them ways to safety before a rioter broke her left hand with an iron rod.
"The doctors and nurses in the hospital have been taking good care of us," she said. "They treated us like their own family members."
Asiya's appreciation of the doctors and nurses was shared by Liu Hongtao, 32, a Han who suffered four stab wounds in the riot.
"They saved my life and their love healed my trauma," he said.
Every time a doctor or a nurse passed him, Liu would give them a nod with a smile. Liu, along with others injured in the violence, would be treated at the expense of the local government.
"I do not understand why the tragedy happened," said Duolukun. "Staff at our hospital include people of all the 13 ethnicities in Xinjiang. We work together like a big family."
He said patients in the hospital, despite their ethnic differences, had not had conflict with each other.
"Those who started the violence are small in number," said Duolukun. "Most people in Xinjiang are friendly."
(Xinhua News Agency July 10, 2009)
