https://arab.news/9b9sm
- Former general physician, now a medical resident in Jeddah
- Red Crescent, Riyadh
On what it has been like working the frontlines during COVID-19:
At first, it felt like something you’d read out of fiction novels. Disbelief at first. You hear a lot of rumors and false information and talks here and there that make everything worse and not make anything better especially for people working in the medical field. After dealing with it, you start to understand what’s going on and things got better.
In my opinion, the situation showed two characters of people; those that look at the bad and those that look at the good. I was looking at the good when it came to the disease itself and when it came to the people and the habits that changed and the amount of knowledge that they gained, how to stay clean, how to sterilize and not spread infection. For a very long time, it was something that I’ve always wanted to see (not in this setting), but it’s better than nothing.
It also presented an opportunity to reconnect with people you might have neglected. Yes, you see bad stuff and a lot of it. We were responsible for taking the decision if the patient is critical enough to be taken to a hospital or can we manage them here? You see from mild to the worst of cases, and I’m talking worst of cases, even deaths. I was the first to see deaths, I would be the person to examine the corpse and assess if it was COVID-19 related or not, announce the death, sign the certificate and leave. I witnessed all of this, but since I was always looking at the bright side of things, it was an experience that taught me a lot.
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