"Here are stories that warm the heart."
"Here are stories that warm the heart."
Heartwarming are incidents reported in media about better-to-do families, lower middle class yet, who ask that the food packs given to them by their local governments be given to the more needy instead.
Such nobility of character, as contra-distinguished from politicians who, already having too much, would still appropriate more for themselves.
Anecdotes like these make us all feel good. They show that we can rise above our self-interests. We can think beyond our family concerns. Crisis indeed can bring out the best in people.
**
There is this recent “encounter” between a lady physician and some gentlemen front-liners at a checkpoint. Most of the following conversation was in Tagalog, which I translated:
Officer: Good evening, ma’am. It’s already late, where are you going?
Lady: I’m headed for home, from the hospital (gave the name of the hospital).
Officer: Ah, my wife was admitted to that hospital. She is about to give birth.
The lady, after looking at the nameplate of the officer asked: Is your wife ____ (giving a first name).
Officer: Yes, ma’am, are you Dr. Imelda Ibarrieta?
Lady: Yes, and your wife already gave birth a few hours ago. Congratulations! Why aren’t you on leave…in the hospital?
Officer: I have no more leaves left, Doctor. Besides, we are on full alert and the salary could help…we have a bigger family now.
Lady doctor, whose heart went out to the young officer for his dedication to duty: Don’t worry about my professional fees, I am waiving it.
Officer: But no, doctor, it wouldn’t be right…
Lady doctor: Don’t be bashful; you are serving the country and our people in these critical times. It’s the least I can do for you.
By this time, the other policemen who overheard the conversation, started giving their compliments to the new father among them.
The lady doctor was so impressed by the young father’s dedication to duty and concern for his new son’s future that she even handed him a jar of imported coffee for him and the other men in uniform toiling through the night.
The officers started singing “Happy Birthday” to cheer up their young officer, and the lady physician was so enthralled by the blissful encounter.
**
There is this Covid-19 survivor who recently travelled to Malaysia and got infected during her trip. Not qualifying for the DOH-approved PCR testing, as test kits were few, she was advised to do home quarantine.
But days after, she had a dry cough which despite medication, became prolonged for about two weeks. Along with the same, she had general malaise and few sporadic episodes of diarrhea.
Finally, after her case had deteriorated, she was allowed to receive the PCR method’s nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swab tests. The swabs were taken on Day 11 from the onset of symptoms, or 14 days from her exposure to the virus.
Three days later, the results of her PCR test came back — negative for the Covid 19.
Trained as a physician, she felt that what she got was a “false negative”. She was tested too late; or she had recovered by the time the swabs were taken; or the method was simply inaccurate.
Another doctor-friend proposed a rapid antibody test. She turned IgG positive, implying that she had a prior Covid-19 infection. (IgG means immunoglobin-G, antibodies that form after one has recovered from an infection in the past).
She recounted her mixed emotions, of fear, as it could have turned for the worse; but also of relief, that she had survived the ordeal and now have the antibodies to fight the disease.
With a deep sense of responsibility, she decided to donate her plasma so that her antibodies could help someone else get well.
After at least 28 days with no symptoms, on April 20, she finally donated convalescent plasma at the UP College of Medicine, Paz Mendoza Building Room 108. It brought back good memories of when she was a student of medicine there.
Dr. Alvina Pauline Santiago, a pediatric ophthalmologist, intends to donate every two weeks, at most twelve times, to help others to resist the contagion that afflicts them.
She concludes her story with a very inspiring message: “I could not be at the frontlines. This was the only way I could think of to give back. I owe it to all of you staying inside your homes, to all of you donating and finding ways to help our front liners, front liners on the streets, teachers, residents, interns, nurses and other health care workers, some of you who had paid dearly with life itself.”
“SARS-CoV2, the virus responsible for Covid-19 will be beaten. The heart and soul of mankind wil win. Our task is daunting, but #WeHealasOne, and #WeWinasOne.”
**
There is a snow-balling move in Taiwan, asking China Airlines which is majority-owned by the Taiwan government, to change its rather “confusing” name to Taiwan Airlines, and thus establish a clearer flag-carrier identity.
In support of the move, a Canadian created a meme of a China Airlines jet with the name “Taiwan (Not Part of China) Airlines” printed in its body.
**
Just as I was wrapping up today’s column, a doctor, whose grandmother was the classmate of my departed mother at the UST College of Medicine, sent a text message that private hospitals in the NCR are seeing less and less cases of COVID-19, and their ERs no longer swarm with people consulting for possible coronavirus infection.
I asked if this was an indication that we are flattening the curve. She said she thinks it’s really because we had a backlog of cases and the “new” cases DOH has been reporting are mostly backlogs, since testing has ramped up only in the past two weeks.
Of course, the private hospitals she referred to are the four- and five-star hospitals which the well-to-do patronize. Now that mass testing is being done at the insistence of the LGU officials and the business sector, we should be getting a more realistic picture of the infected.
I truly hope this is a good indication.
