Luo Yongfa warms a blood bag for a patient for 40 minutes on Nov 20, 2018. [Photo/ThePaper.cn]

A doctor in South China's Guangdong province used his hands to warm a bag of blood for 40 minutes for a severely injured patient.

Luo Fayong, 32, told ThePaper.cn at around 7:50 am on Tuesday a person who suffered from hemorrhagic shock in a car accident was sent to the hospital where Luo works.

The man needed a blood transfusion urgently. As the blood in the bag was not yet warm enough, Luo used his hands to warm it with body heat for 40 minutes straight.

Blood taken from a blood bank should be kept at indoor temperatures for 15 to 20 minutes before being transfused into the human body, Lan Rongyu, a colleague of Luo, said.

"This isn't worth mentioning," Luo said after he had been working that night. But when he checked his WeChat Moments the next morning, he found a photo of him taken by his colleagues went viral.

"He received many letters of thanks and pennants from patients compared with other doctors," one of Luo's colleagues surnamed Liang said. Another one, surnamed Li, praised him as a very responsible person.

When asked if he felt tired for warming the blood bag such a long time, he said: "The bag was not heavy at all. And I believe whoever faced this situation would do the same."

"It seems easy, but it needs patience and a caring heart, because he could have asked one of the patient's family members do it," an internet user said on Sina Weibo, China's equivalent to Twitter.