We watched from a distance an elderly woman who broke up with her dying husband - and we could not hug her Israel today

The second wave taught me the meaning of life, and created moments I never thought I would deal with • A special column by a doctor in the Corona ward

I traveled all over the world, traveled to all the challenging places, but one moment that occurred before my eyes through the cameras and screens of the Corona Squadron, illustrated to me what the true meaning of life is.

I have been a doctor in the Corona ward at the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya since the first wave.

The second wave of the virus often leaves us speechless in the face of situations that at other times were considered routine.

On Wednesday this week, a 91-year-old man in the Corona ward passed away.

His wife, 89, was hospitalized in critical condition in the corresponding corona ward, and we knew her chances of attending her husband's funeral were slim.

We turned to their son and asked for his permission to bring his mother accompanied by a care team to her husband’s bed so she could hold his hand and say goodbye to him. 

After receiving the permit, the elderly woman was brought into his room while she was in her bed and connected to oxygen.

She stayed next to him for about half an hour.

We watched a meeting from a distance, in the Knesset room, without having the ability or possibility to comfort and embrace. With sadness, humility, simplicity and a sense of wholeness, she held her hand in his and allowed him to go to his worldly home. Her face was calm and calm. 

In another case and in a similar situation, a daughter told her father in his last moments words of love and farewell from all the rest of the family using a recording device.

In those moments, the corona crew stood and shed a tear, watching it through the CCTV screens.

In the corona department I learned the meaning of life.

I learned the meaning of compassion, simplicity, intimacy and how self-evident these little things are.

After watching an elderly corona patient separate from her husband, at night, I turned on the TV in my home and was amazed when I saw a report on multi-participant events and interviews with spiritual leaders and their distorted interpretation of reality.

I could not understand why the reality in which I live does not penetrate the minds of all the masses. 

When I woke up in the morning I went back to the same war, the same reality and the same class, and especially to the same things that give us the true meaning of life.

I will continue to give professional, and especially human, medicine because first of all, we are human beings.

The author is the Deputy Director of the Corona A Department at the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya