The COVID-19 pandemic hard-hitting the world and France is among the countries with the highest number of cases (more than 44,000) and deaths (3,024). Fifty Saudi doctors are currently in France completing internships or taking parts in specialization programs.
The group has acquired government-backed scholarships before moving to France that pays for their medical training and education. One of them is Dr. Ola Binhimd and she shared with Arab News her experience in France along with other doctors.
Dr. Binhimd is a Jeddawi that arrived in France five years ago and 2020 is her final year as a plastic surgeon and reconstruction resident at the Necker Pediatric Hospital in Paris. Her internship would have ended in April but has now been extended to the end of May due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Here’s her telling testimonial:
“I am currently working in the field of plastic surgery for children. That includes working with those born with deformities and with those who have accidents such as dog bites. These accidents are common nowadays because children are confined to their homes. I work in a pediatric hospital, so cases of COVID-19 are less frequent here, though seven children suffering from the virus were recently admitted. The hospital made a number of changes in order to deal with this crisis. Before these cases were admitted, two operating rooms were ready every day and they were used to perform operations that were not urgent. Both of them have now been re-purposed and are not used except for emergency operations. Anesthesiologists now check on patients and see if any of them have a fever. Visits to the hospital are prohibited and the child’s parents are the only ones allowed in his or her room”
It’s Dr. Binhimd’s 10th semester as a resident and in November 2020, she will move to the Gustave Roussy Institute, a cancer-research institute in the South of Paris. We wish our heroes the best of luck and safety throughout their successful medical journey.
