A doctor who contracted a severe case of Covid-19 at work has urged the public to adhere to safety measures and not to underestimate the importance of staying at home whenever possible.
Dr Waguih Elsissi, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon and medical director of Ajman Specialty Hospital, began feeling symptoms of the virus after checking on patients on April 6.
“During the round I supervised the transportation of a patient who was in isolation at the hospital,” said Dr Elsissi, 80, from Egypt.
He said the pain grew unbearable and he developed a strong cough. When he returned home, he felt disorientated and exhausted.
"But I couldn't eat and was unable to sleep the whole night because of the non-stop coughing and the horrible pain. It felt as if someone had been pounding my bones and broke them into pieces," he said.
These are simple procedures yet are the guarantee you don't get infected
Dr Elsissi took a strong pain killer but felt no difference, saying the incessant coughing made him feel constantly out of breath.
The next day, he was too weak to go to work so his daughter took him to the preventive medicine unit in Ajman, where they were both tested for Covid-19.
Once Dr Elsissi was swabbed, he began vomiting profusely and fell unconscious. He was immediately taken to Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in Ajman.
"I didn't interfere in the doctor's treatment plan but, due to the intense and non-stop pain, I asked them to give me anything that would help put me to sleep."
His test result showed that he had contracted Covid-19 while his daughter's test came back negative.
Dr Elsissi spent nearly a month in hospital being treated for Covid-19. He said he was not afraid of dying but worried for his family, especially with his daughter, 32, who was quarantining home alone and his wife, 68, who became stuck in Egypt after borders closed.
Dr Elsissi and his family have lived in the UAE for 23 years. The doctor has worked at Ajman Specialty hospital for the past three years.
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Coronavirus in the UAE - in pictures
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"I am a believer and I know one's life is in God's hands … but I was thinking of my family of a wife and one daughter and what would happen to them."
His wife had travelled to Egypt to visit family and discovered the UAE had closed its borders while making her way to the airport for her flight back to the Emirates. She has since received approval to return to the UAE and is due to travel within the month.
He said that, despite being a doctor, struggling with the virus alone in hospital affected his outlook.
"One of many downsides of being infected is that your morale gets shaken.
“But words of encouragement by UAE leaders who stressed that everyone will be taken care of, kept me, others, and medical staff motivated and feeling safe,” he said.
Medics were able to treat the worst of his symptoms within eight days of being admitted to the hospital.
"Everyone in the medical team was doing all that in their power and were working so hard to take care of all patients,' Dr Elsissi said.
After being discharged from hospital, he stayed at a hotel for four days while he was tested again for the virus.
On receiving the all-clear, he returned home, where he self-isolated for a further 10 days.
"My daughter would leave me the food or any other essentials at the door, until I was done self isolating."
Having recovered from the deadly virus, Dr Elsissi's message to the public is clear: take safety measures seriously to protect yourself and others.
"The safe distance you leave between you and other people, wearing your mask and gloves and washing your hands, are your safety net.
"These are simple procedures yet are the guarantee you don't get infected."
RESULTS
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One-off T20 International: UAE v Australia
When: Monday, October 22, 2pm start
Where: Abu Dhabi Cricket, Oval 1
Tickets: Admission is free
Australia squad: Aaron Finch (captain), Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey, Ashton Agar, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Lynn, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, Darcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Mitchell Starc, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa, Peter Siddle
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
More coverage from the Future Forum
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
