Inspiring stories
OF frontliners
Health care workers put their lives at risk to treat COVID-19 patients. They are the foot soldiers in the fight against the coronavirus. We celebrate the sacrifices of some of them.
Medical care workers, including doctors and nurses, are at the forefront of the COVID-19, fight and their risk of infection is the highest. All over the world, health care workers are lauded for their dedication and bravery as global coronavirus infections have gone well over 75 million.
Celebrating doctors, nurses and medical staff, we compiled stories of a handful of heroes representing millions of others.
Risking his life to save another
A doctor in Surat is being lauded for performing his duty while undergoing treatment for COVID-19. While his actions impacted his health, he saved another patient’s life. ANI reported that Dr Sanket Mehta, an anesthesiologist, tested positive for the coronavirus and had been on oxygen support for around 42 days at the time of the incident. The doctor had to step in to help the intubation of a patient next to him: a 65-year-old COVID-positive man.The doctor removed his oxygen support for 10-20 minutes to intubate (he’s an expert at it) the patient, and saved a life. However, the brave doctor’s condition worsened quickly. He was shifted to Chennai and put on ventilator support. Dr Mehra has recovered after suffering severe lung damage.
Gone down fighting
Saudi nurse Mohammed Ayed Al Otaibi worked day and night fighting COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia. Otaibi contracted the virus from the patients at his hospital and his condition quickly deteriorated. Otaibi succumbed to the disease at the age of 49, after 25 years of service as a nurse. Okaz reported that Otaibi’s brother said the nurse didn’t have a moment’s hesitation before diving headfirst into the front lines of the COVID-19 battle. He is survived by his children aged 18 and 5.
Read: Mohammed Ayed, battling the virus
Reuters
Dorado greets family members from behind a plastic window on a wall covered in foil at her home in Manila, in June 2020.
Home, but not at home
Filipino doctor Jan Claire Dorado, 30, planned to move out of the home she shared with her parents after she started working in her hospital’s COVID-19 emergency room, Reuters reported. Her parents, however, didn’t want her to move and set up a makeshift isolation area in a storage room. Dorado does not interact with her family and only sees them through a plastic-covered cut-out in the isolation area wall. Dorado’s parents are in the high-risk category and the strict separation is what is keeping the family safe.
Hundreds of medical workers in the Philippines have been infected by the coronavirus and more than 30 have died.
See: Filipino doctors in pictures
A COVID honeymoon
Kashif Chaudhry and Naila Shereen, fell in love while on medical missions, KCRG-TV [a media outlet based in Iowa] reported. The couple had planned a big wedding and a Dubai-Maldives honeymoon. However, the pandemic derailed their plans and the doctors getting married in a small, safe gathering at Shereen’s family home in New York. 12 hours later, instead of embarking on their first trip as newly-weds, both doctors headed to different cities to continue fighting the pandemic. They plan to have a reception and celebration after the pandemic.
Retirement can wait
After 40 years as a nurse in Swindon, England, Liz Gallagher was looking forward to hanging up her scrubs this year, the Swindon Advertiser reported. However, as the pandemic hit, Gallagher put all retirement plans on hold to assist in the COVID-19 fight by leading the ICU section of her local hospital. Her husband reportedly said, "She was going into work at 6.30am and not getting home until 7 at night, but even after that she was constantly answering questions on What’s App. Even on her days off, she was going in to see how the staff were.”
According to the report, Gallagher was nominated for and won the Make a Difference Superstar campaign by BBC Radio and Great Western Railway.
I take it as a way of giving back to this community that has long treated me as one of its own. I put in my service every day, and I pray for God’s help to beat this virus"
Aurora Aguinaldo | Filipino nurse in the UAE since 1981
UAE nurse: 1981 to now
64-year-old Filipino nurse Aurora Aguinaldo started working as a nurse in the UAE in 1981, and is part of the COVID-19 efforts in the country. Speaking exclusively to Gulf News in June Aguinaldo, with over 39 years of nursing experience, remembered tending to the young family members in the royal household and in the presence of UAE’s founding father, the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan. “I take it as a way of giving back to this community that has long treated me as one of its own. I put in my service every day, and I pray for God’s help to beat this virus,” Aguinaldo told Gulf News.
When the virus first broke out, Aguinaldo said she worked directly with COVID-19 patients for a month and later moved to transfer and discharge patients.
Read: The Filipino nurse who worked for Sheikh Zayed