According to the event that happened on the 13th of November 2020, this Klang-born doctor named Dr Dharminy Thurairatnam was working as usual at the Lyell McEwin Hospital. Then, an 80-year-old lady came into her with breathing difficulties. At first, she didn’t exactly know what the woman had but as soon as she heard the particular old lady cough a couple of times, Dr. Dharminy immediately ordered a Covid-19 test on the elderly woman. It is such a great action taken by the doctor because it had been seven months since Southern Australia had a local case.
A few hours later, the test results for the elderly woman came back and the old lady had been tested positive for Covid-19. This caused panic and a lockdown in the state of Adelaide in Southern Australia. A total of 4,000 close contacts were identified with 100 of those being from the emergency unit of the Lyell McEwin Hospital. Dr. Dharminy Thurairatnam is also one of them. She said, “It was a terrifying ordeal as I did not know if I had contracted the virus but at the end of the day, we still need to have hope, faith, and positivity that everything will be fine”. Luckily, Dr. Dharminy Thurairatnam has since been tested twice in quarantine and both of the results came back negative. She will be out of quarantine later this week.
After this proud news spread that Dr. Dharminy Thurairatnam was the one who had reported and also diagnosed the elderly patient, she was then hailed a hero by many of the people in Australia. She remained humble and stated, “Honestly, the prevention of the spread of the cluster in South Australia was a team effort between the Southern Australians and the state government”.
Dr. Dharminy Thurairatnam moved to Australia late last year and it has been about seven to eight months ever since she has seen her family back here in Malaysia. We, Malaysians are so proud of her.
Sources: Facebook SA Health, Facebook Tyre Ace.