Tygerberg Hospital hero amongst us – Jonathan Abrahams

This week’s nominated coronavirus hero amongst us at Tygerberg Hospital, Jonathan Abrahams, provides an essential service to the public during these challenging times. The hero amongst us campaign seeks to highlight an official’s achievements, abilities or personal qualities during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the eyes of hospital staff, he or she can also be regarded as a role model or ideal.

As an Operator at the Pneumatic Tube Station, he and his colleagues receive and dispatch blood specimens to the correct laboratories for analysing. They also ensure the availability of tubes to all departments. “I easily adapt to any situation, department or environment where I am working. I want to make a difference and rub off positivity in this challenging time of COVID-19 and bring hope to people around me, said Jonathan, who lives in Nooitgedacht, Bishop Lavis.

What motivates him to come to work every day is, “With COVID-19 I came to realise that no matter how much money you have, you cannot buy health. During this lockdown I realise that people come first, and my joy and pleasure comes from doing the things I love. When I come to work, I know I am going to try and make a difference by being positive in my work area [and] by making someone happy. I come to work with a positive frame of mind which will eventually rub off on the people around me. When I engage with people, I make use of the opportunity to change that person’s life even if it is for just a moment. I want to know that when people will speak about their experience at Tygerberg Hospital they must say, yes COVID-19 was tough but I am glad I was treated there and not any other hospital. My place of work, Tygerberg Hospital must be the silver lining to a not so good experience.”

He is also appreciative of the support of hospital management during this time. “The management try their utmost best to implement ways to make it easier for the staff and public in this difficult time. A lot of rules and safety measures such as screening, sanitising, cleaning, disinfecting and wearing of the proper PPE [personal protective equipment] are being implemented and enforced. The symptoms monitoring forms with the thermometer in departments are also effective. There is an opportunity to prepare properly and not to panic but to have a measured approach,” adds Abrahams

Abraham concluded, “Everything that happened so far has happened for a reason. COVID-19 is unfortunately a reality. We are experiencing COVID-19 and it is a hard lesson for all of us to learn. COVID-19 has forced everyone to do introspection in terms of what we are doing. You can positively impact somebody’s life. It gave us an opportunity to really learn about ourselves, family and colleagues. To patients and my colleagues out there, COVID-19 will have its challenges, disadvantages and even death, but we must be positive. Once we make it out of the storm, we must then live a meaningful life and have positive interactions with all people around us.”