MINJA MĂ…R TENS SON | F E AT U R E
THE HEALTHCARE HEROES OF THE BEIRUT BL AST A N D W HY THEY WA NT TO LEAVE
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t was just another Tuesday evening. At St George Hospital, in the heart of the Achrafieh district of Beirut, Dr. Omar Zmerli, a junior doctor and researcher at the Division of Infectious Diseases, was finishing up his rounds. He was on the second floor of the building, inside the special COVID clinic. While his colleagues were having a meeting in the hallway outside, he still needed to check the results of a patient. The clinic had large panoramic windows facing the port of Beirut and the Mediterranean. As he stood there, he was thinking about his research. Wednesday was going to be a big day. He was launching a new COVID unit to improve testing and surveillance of the disease. He was particularly excited about the new IT-system the unit was going to use. After checking on the patient's results, Omar was on his way out from the clinic to join the meeting. That is when he heard the first strange noise. It wasn’t that loud, and he thought it must have been a patient falling over in the hallway. He reached the waiting area adjacent to the examination room. Seconds later, there was another sound
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Lebanon, Beirut, October 12, 2020. It is a bit more than two months since the devastating explosion in Beirut Port shook the city on 4 August. Since then Lebanon Red Cross has been responding to the needs of the people affected.
