A doctor adjusts medical equipment used on a novel coronavirus patient at Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, Hubei province, on March 8, 2020. The patient has improved and is no longer relying on the ECMO machine to survive. [Photo by JIN ZHENQIANG/FOR CHINA DAILY]

Doctors from a top hospital in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei province, shared with their counterparts from a hospital in Germany experience on saving serious COVID-19 patients on March 23.

Via a video conference, six doctors from different departments of Tongji Hospital answered a range of questions from doctors at the Hospital of Jena University, Germany, including mechanical ventilation for serious patients, sampling the virus in patients, potentially effective antiviral drugs and hormone treatment for patients.

Wang Wei, president of Tongji Hospital, said the hospital has received more than 3,700 seriously ill patients over the past two months, and managed to reduce their mortality rate from about 5.6 percent to about 1.2 percent during the period with the assistance of medical teams sent from across China.

"We hope to share our experience and lessons with doctors from the hospital to provide effective treatment to more patients," he said. "We hope to intensify international cooperation and share our knowledge with all the world so we can win the global battle against the epidemic together."

Prior to the video conference on Monday, the hospital had similar exchanges with doctors at their request from the United States and Italy, Wang said.