Fadya. Queretaro, Mexico

Pulmonologist doctor.

“It changed my life, I suppose it changed everyone suddenly. An avalanche of emotions and new decisions and we immersed ourselves in a whirlwind of changes, we could not continue to be spectators, we had to change. Doctors are no exception. As a pulmonologist, they didn’t have to ask me twice to go and treat the pandemic patients. On the contrary. Scared but determined to wake up every day, for over a month, at 6 a.m., to go to the hospital and do the only thing that I learned and I am passionate about: helping others and treating the sick. I’m not the same doctor as before, it’s not the same hospital as before. Our uniform has gone from being a simple robe to an arsenal of over 10 things we use to protect ourselves from infections. It is difficult because it is hot and sometimes the head hurts. Furthermore, the doctor-patient communication is interrupted by an overdose of protective devices. However, it is very nice to receive a smile, to see a favorable evolution, to deliver the letters of their impatient relatives to hospitalized patients from outside. In the hospital, we have a small party when a patient goes home: several nurses, doctors and different staff are placed in a corridor to applaud, sometimes with balloons, when a patient comes home, they shout “Yes, it was possible!” ” si se pudo “…. And yes, it is true, it is possible, that patient was helped to cope and overcome the disease. It is in these moments that, in the vast majority, the best of us comes out, because even if we are tired, we do not stop getting up early, preparing ourselves and going to visit our patients, every day”.