JEDDAH: Dr. Safuq Al-Enezi, an intensive-care consultant in Riyadh, was in the middle of what he described as the “infection hub” when the coronavirus pandemic began: A major city with a large populace.
“The way the infection rapidly spread and resulted in patients being put in intensive care was baffling,” he said.
“I was worried, just like everyone else. Previous pandemics I’ve dealt with didn’t cause me 5 percent of the stress of dealing with COVID-19.”
The doctor, who graduated from McMaster University in Canada, has worked in the field for 25 years.
“I was in Canada when H1N1 (swine flu) broke out. My colleagues and I were giving patients intubations daily, and then we knew of the disease and luckily no one was harmed,” he said.
“With COVID-19, even with all the preventive measures, many of my colleagues still got infected.”
He said he experienced fear on two levels. One was for his patients, as intensive-care units have had to see 10 times their regular number of patients. “We live with our patients and their families, and witness their loss,” he added.
The second fear was for his own family. “I had to isolate myself. My mother was very affected. She told me she’d rather catch the disease than not see me anymore,” he said.
“We’re one of the few countries that didn’t suffer from lack of beds in intensive care, nor a lack of medicine or medical unpreparedness, and that’s because of the cooperation between the Ministry of Health and private institutions in the Kingdom.”
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