Dubai: A blue tulip welcomed Dr Mayella Montemar as she left the hospital ward. Passing by the corridor, with her kids in tow, colleagues of various nationalities came — cheering and giving her more flowers, a warm hug or gentle embrace.
Underneath the face mask, her sweet smile had unmistakably returned. After almost five months battling COVID-19, the 40-year old Filipina resident doctor (Obstetrics & Gynaecology) at Aster Sanad Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, had been cured. But not without a big loss. While she was in the ICU, her husband, Sheridan Chan Montemar, 40 — another medical frontliner — who also got the deadly virus, died last year, leaving her with three young kids.