Israeli-Arab doctor heads coronavirus response at Haifa's Rambam Hospital
Considering her role within the viral response team at the largest hospital in northern Israel, Hussein has been putting in 12-hour days for the for the last few months.
By ZACHARY KEYSERHaifa’s Rambam Medical Center(photo credit: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/RAMBAM MEDICAL CENTER)
Khitam Hussein, an Israeli-Arab doctor who heads of the outbreak response unit at Rambam Hospital in the Bat Galim neighborhood of Haifa, has been serving on the Israeli frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic since the outbreak's beginning in early February.Considering her role within the viral response team at the largest hospital in northern Israel, Hussein has been putting in 12-hour days for the for the last few months."It is incredibly difficult work, no day is like another," Hussein told the AFP. "Our lives have been turned upside down."As of Wednesday morning, Israel has officially registered 15,570 cases of COVID-19, with 212 deaths.However, with Hussein, to cope she has found solace in the little moments she shares with the patients she cares for.She noted to the AFP a situation with an elderly couple, where the two had both come down with the coronavirus and were facing a dark road ahead. As the husband's condition deteriorated beyond return, the hospital allowed his ill wife to say goodbye to her husband one last time - moments later he died."We allowed his sick wife, despite her condition, to speak to her husband -- to say goodbye," Hussein told AFP. "As a human it's difficult, all the medical staff were saddened."Hussein grew up in the northeastern Israeli-Arab town of Rameh, now she lives in the city of Karmiel - just a 30-minute drive away from Haifa, Israel's third largest city.Hussein has been shuddered away from relatives outside her immediate family for the past two months, of her own accord. The list of those she hasn't seen includes her elderly mother, which Hussein has stayed away from due to fears of spreading the virus on to her after working 12-hour days in the coronavirus ward of Rambam. Many doctors and nurses across the worldAnd although Hussein still lives at home with her husband and two young daughters, the half-day shifts at the hospital are weighing in on the time she has to get the chance to spend with her family.Many healthcare workers across the world have been avoiding going home altogether so they can circumvent passing the virus along to family members. Many are those who live with elderly or immunity-compromised relatives, others are just scared, overwhelmed by the fears surrounding the viral spread while also experiencing the devastation it unleashes first hand.Upon her arrival home, she immediately washes up, takes a shower and changes her before seeing her daughters. Taking every precaution before she interacts with her loved ones."I arrive late most of the time when they are already asleep but sometimes they wait up for me," Hussein told the AFP. "I have stopped myself from seeing my parents, but I couldn't stop seeing my daughters. I cannot describe how I miss them [when I am at the hospital]."Hussein explained that it would be nearly impossible for her to make the decision to do the same - to avoid coming home, to leave her husband and children for an unknown amount of time - considering there is no telling when the pandemic will die down and how much they already miss eachother throughout.Hussein's daughters are aged 8 and 10, which are the final few years before they start to yearn for their independence.However, luckily it seems Hussein has some time before that stage begins with her daughters. She told the AFP of an instance where her youngest called her in the middle of a shift."She was crying down the phone, saying 'I miss you, when are you coming home?'" Husseing told the AFP. "For a few minutes I thought I would collapse. Then I gathered myself and went back to work."