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Covid-19: UAE student turns frontline hero

Sharjah - “Imagine calling a father to tell him that his seven-year-old daughter was infected with Covid-19 and a special team was on the way to take her into quarantine,” she said.

Contacting someone to break the news that a loved one is gravely ill is one of the hardest aspects of work in the medical profession. For 22-year-old Esraa Al Agha, it was part of daily life volunteering during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Imagine calling a father to tell him that his seven-year-old daughter was infected with Covid-19 and a special team was on the way to take her into quarantine,” she said.

“I struggled to control myself when he burst into tears, knowing that his only daughter was in danger and that he couldn’t be with her.

“I did my best to stay calm and reassure him that she was in the best hands. For 14 days, the girl, who has asthma, battled the virus. I kept in touch with her parents, giving them updates every day and setting up Zoom calls for them to talk. Once the girl recovered and tested negative, I was excited to call the father again to ask him to collect his daughter.”

Esraa’s work has taken her from Ajman Preventative Medicine Centre to Al Qasimi Hospital in Sharjah and multiple medical facilities around the country. She is among the countless healthcare professionals and volunteers who have been recognised by the Frontline Heroes Office for going to exceptional lengths to safeguard people’s wellbeing.

Esraa, a Jordanian who lives in Ajman, is a student at Dubai Medical College. Soon after the outbreak, she responded to a Takatof message calling for volunteers to support the Al Qasimi Hospital in Sharjah. Esraa signed up for daily shifts, mainly as a liaison between patients’ families and the healthcare teams.

“The hours at the hospital were long and the number of cases immense. There were so many stories of pain, especially at the beginning of the pandemic,” she said.

Although the work is emotional and difficult, she will never forget the moments when she passed on news that a loved one had recovered from the disease. Her motivation is simple. “I was born in the UAE and I have lived all my life here. All my efforts are my way of giving back to this country.”

reporters@khaleejtimes.com