You risk your life in exchange for the lives of others

A healthcare worker describes the pride and fear she’s experienced while watching her baby sister become a doctor in the time of COVID-19

I’m sharing this because I want people to know that being in the healthcare field is not just a job. It’s a life choice. It requires you to risk your life in exchange for the lives of others. I’m in the healthcare field myself, and so I understand how tough this is. Especially in a pandemic.

This photo is of my baby sister. She is a gastroenterology fellow, and now a COVID-19 frontliner. Two months ago she hung up her scope and put on her white coat to be an attending physician, taking care of COVID-19 patients in one of the hardest hit hospitals in Queens, New York. 

Fast forward 2 months. She is now back in GI, doing what she loves. I remember the times when she would call me to talk about her daily endeavors, her fear of a new normal in the COVID era, and her trepidation when it came to meeting friends and family, or frankly, anyone at all. 

Yet every day, she puts on her personal protective equipment and a brave face, and she does it over and over again. I am so incredibly proud of her.

Right now I am most afraid for my sister’s health, for her mental wellbeing, and for her physical wellbeing.

The happiest moment during the COVID crisis was when she told me that she was going back to gastroenterology! Yay! 

The smiles on her face whenever her patients get discharged make me smile too.

Her saddest stories from the COVID crisis would be when her patients died.

My sister, the frontliner, has been the most influential person in my life during this crisis. Of course!

I wish the world knew that being a healthcare worker is not just a job. It’s so much more than that.

- Huei Wen Lim, Internal Medicine/Gastroenterology, New York City, NY