Dr. Medlej Dua, aged 27, from Kafr Qara is nearing the end of her internship in medicine at the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center. Last month, Dr. Medlej became sick with coronavirus (COVID-19) which she apparently caught from her family, and was forced to stay home until she had recovered. This week Dr. Medlej returned to her work in the Infectious Diseases A Department, where patients who are confirmed to have coronavirus are hospitalized, but she never imagined that her father, Nadir, would need to be hospitalized in the same department after his condition had deteriorated.
Dr. Medlej relates: “I waited to already get back to the hospital, particularly to the Infectious Diseases A Department. I am well aware of the heavy physical and mental load carried by the staff, and as someone who had had and recovered from COVID-19, I feel “safer” and want to help the medical staff and, of course, the patients themselves, as much as possible. This disease is much worse than what I thought. When you experience it yourself, it’s not the same thing as seeing someone else suffer.”
Regarding her father, she added: “I am happy I am near my father and try to help him as much as possible. One of the hardest things for the patients in the department is that they cannot see or meet their relatives. I am happy that in this case, I can support my father and encourage him from close by that everything will be okay.”
Dr. Medlej and her father, Nadir, in the Infectious Diseases Department at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center