Kerala Doctor Cancels Wedding Date to Serve Patients Amid COVID-19

A 23-year old doctor cancelled her wedding date to serve patients during COVID-19 outbreak.

Dr. Shifa M Mohammed

(Photo Courtesy: Screengrab)

Amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, many healthcare professionals have been working day and night, away from their families in order to surmount the global pandemic. One such example is that of a 23-year-old surgeon from Kerela, who cancelled her wedding date and decided to serve the afflicted patients ahead of her personal life.

According to a report in Hindustan Times, Dr Shifa M Mohammed, who is a house surgeon at the Pariyaram Medical College Hospital in Kannur, was supposed to tie the knot with her Dubai-based fiance on 29 March. But instead of a bridal dress, the young surgeon chose to don herself in protective gear on her wedding day and took off to nurse patients admitted in the isolation ward of the hospital.

In an interview with the publication, she said that her “marriage can wait” but not her patients who are struggling in isolation wards.

She added, “It is true, I was in the corona ward on my wedding day and some of my friends even teased me saying I was dressed in my best attire (PPE). But I always enjoy serving my patients.”

Shifa's family too was very supportive of her decision and encouraged her to do her job. Mukkam Mohammed, her father who is a leader of the Nationalist Congress Party and LDF district convenor in Kozhikode also took pride in his daughter’s decision and motivated her to give her best in order to save the patients.

“When we approached the groom Anus Mohammad, a businessman in Dubai, he also readily agreed to it,” he told Hindustan Times. Mukkam Mohammed also said that it’s his and his wife’s work ethic that reflects in his daughter’s professional life as well. Shifa’s father is a social worker and her mother is a teacher.

Shifa’s father further added that he was happy to see such a strong “social responsibility and professional commitment” in her daughter.

According to the interview, the parents readily agreed to postponing the wedding.

With the rising numbers of COVID-19 infected patients in Kerala, the state government decided to convert the Pariyaram Medical College Hospital in Kannur to a dedicated facility to treat COVID-19 patients. The state has reported two disease-related deaths and 234 people remain in isolation wards so far.

In such tragic times of a global pandemic, people like Shifa keep our hopes alive and give us the strength to fight this together.

(With inputs from Hindustan Times)