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No regrets: Doctor postpones church wedding to volunteer in fight against COVID-19

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April Rafales, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2020/life/05/07/doctor-wedding.jpg"/><figcaption>Mayee Barredo and her husband were supposed to have their dream church wedding on May 2. Instead, she chose to serve at the frontlins as the country battled a coronavirus crisis. Mayee Barredo</figcaption></figure></div>MANILA -- Twenty-six year-old Dr. Mayee Barredo and her husband got married in a civil ceremony in February.They were supposed to have their dream church wedding on May 2. But this didn’t happen because COVID-19 came into the picture and changed the world’s timeline, including theirs.While many frontliners have already shared their own stories of success, tears, joys and sacrifices during this life-changing pandemic, Barredo shared how her own life was changed and given purpose.She used to work in several hospitals in Metro Manila before the pandemic but had to stop when the enhanced community quarantine started in March because she had no access to transportation.“That time, nasa bahay lang ako and for doctors sobrang &#x27;yung feeling na wala kang magawa at a time like this when your profession calls for it the most. ‘Yung feeling na wala kang magagawa, it did not sit well with me,” she said.Her family then sent her links to Pasig Mayor Vico Sotto’s post seeking nurses and doctors to volunteer in the fight against COVID.Barredo said she was surprised she was accepted the day after she applied.While she is a volunteer, the local government unit has allocated a budget for their allowance and other needs.“Supportive talaga ang Pasig LGU to us health workers and frontliners. They make sure we are provided with personal protective equipment, they make sure we are well-fed through the cafeteria at the hospital and the mobile kitchen and donations from private entities come in. At the same time we are compensated with allowances at a reasonable price,&quot; Barredo said.Since then, she has embraced a new routine: she dons her usual garb for work three days a week. She goes to work, accepts endorsements of outgoing doctors on the patients’ needs, puts on her personal protective equipment, does her rounds and monitors her patients throughout the day, endorses the patients and what needs to be done to the incoming doctors and goes home.While their church wedding may have a taken a backseat, they were still able to celebrate on the day when they were supposed to be exchanging “I do’s”.“I got home on May 2 at around lunchtime and lucky for me because my husband was the one who prepared a mini-wedding reception for the both of us. So when I got home, after the usual routine na diretso ligo, diretso sanitize, my husband set up a really nice lunch for us tapos nag-first dance din kaming dalawa. May pa-toast din kami ng coffee and sparkling juice, nag-cutting of the cake din po kami,” she fondly recalled.Does she have any regrets? Her answer is a resounding “No.”“Mabilis naming in-accept that the wedding will have to be postponed for sure the moment nagkaroon ng first case dito. It was easy for us to accept because we are already civilly wed and we told ourselves and we understood that this pandemic is bigger than all of us, wala kaming magagawa dito,” Barredo said.Barredo intends to see the end of the fight against the pandemic alongside her colleagues, because to her, the fight has become personal.“In dealing with COVID patients it’s not enough na doctor ka sa kanila. You also have to be a counselor to them, you have to ease their anxieties and the anxieties of their families who are waiting behind. So me and my co-doctors we make sure we give time to talk to them and explain what is happening, to explain to them &#x27;yung plan of care namin and at the same time alleviate their fears and those of their families. Minsan via video call we talk to their families,” she said.The job is demanding and challenging, given the threats to their own life, but what’s bigger than the fear is the victories they win each day, Barredo said.“Yung fulfillment ko as a doctor is both in the big things such as sending our patients home na recovered after more than one month of being in the hospital and the little things such as a patient saying thank you kasi nag-rounds ka today. As simple as that, pero may fulfillment na,” she said. To her heart and mind, she will see the end of this fight. And when all this is over, Barredo has a lifetime to look forward to with her husband and the family that they have yet to build.

Dr. Mayee Barredo and her husband were supposed to have their dream church wedding on May 2. But this didn’t happen, because COVID-19 came into the picture and changed the world’s timeline, including theirs.

Dr. Mayee Barredo and her husband were supposed to have their dream church wedding on May 2. But this didn’t happen, because COVID-19 came into the picture and changed the world’s timeline, including theirs.

No regrets: Doctor postpones church wedding to volunteer in fight against COVID-19

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No regrets: Doctor postpones church wedding to volunteer in fight against COVID-19

April Rafales,

ABS-CBN News

Published May 07, 2020 04:31 PM PHT

|

Updated May 07, 2020 06:32 PM PHT

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