Lessons Saudi woman learned while battling COVID-19

A Saudi woman caught COVID-19 while she was isolated with her family, with 11 members in the house also infected. Their symptoms ranged from mild to severe. Khuloud Mullah, 43, who works in the diplomatic sector in Riyadh, visited her family in Yanbu before the nationwide curfew was put in place. “It all started before the government issued the curfew order, when my brother-in-law went to a weekend getaway (isteraha) and was joined by other men who just came from abroad and carried the coronavirus without knowing,” she told Arab News.

During her recovery journey,

Mullah said she learned and discovered many things while at the hospital struggling with her illness. The blessing of health cannot be compared to any other blessing, she said, adding that there were moments she felt that her death was close. The blessing of freedom was also something Mullah felt while in quarantine. She started to appreciate all the things she took for granted before the virus outbreak.

The third lesson Mullah learned from this experience was practicing patience in the midst of a painful journey.

Fighting the disease for two weeks, Mullah said that some of the symptoms that she and her family suffered from included “losing the sense of taste and smell, lack of appetite to eat, instability when walking or standing, always falling to the ground whenever walking, high fever, severe pain in the body … very severe and constant headaches, shortness of breath where I couldn’t fill my lungs.”

She said that she resisted the pain and constant dizziness, and tried to move around her hospital room whenever she could.

Mullah has left the hospital and is now in a hotel until she fully recovers before she can come into contact with other people.

Mullah has left the hospital and is now in a hotel until she fully recovers before she can come into contact with other people.