By Atty. Egay Uy
I recently had a Messenger chat with former City Health Officer Dra. Lorraine Nery whose current assignment as Medical Officer in the CHO still makes her attend to the public as a referral physician of one of the temporary treatment and monitoring facilities. I could sense from her messages that she was in high spirits, as she always has been.
She is also taking assignments for the teleconsultation in the City Health Office, a different kind of fulfillment for her, I’m sure, because that will enable a person of her discipline to consult with patients and somehow help them in their health concerns during these times when people hesitate or are even afraid to go out of their homes (except the immortals, of course).
I was informed Telemed or Teleconsulta is one of the earliest Covid-19 responses she initiated last year when the pandemic invaded our city.
Her acquaintances in the emergency operation center of the city’s Covid-19 response usually referred to her as “the smiling doc” because of her contagious smile and light demeanor even in stressful moments.
I came to know Doc. Lorraine when she used to attend meetings in our alma mater when we were campaigning in 2013 for good governance. She used to attend the meetings with Doc. Monching Nery who is a younger brother of my XUHS 4-Gold classmate, Kelly.
On the side, we were also vigorously campaigning against the sale of votes. We called the campaign “My Vote is Not for Sale.” But as we may all know, our voice was but a small one in a noisy marketplace where buying and selling of votes were disguised as something else. But that would be another story.
The “smiling doc” that I knew before she shed off her involvement in the operation center and local task force against coronavirus is still the same smiling doc, but this time she has found more time doing one of her favorite past times, dancing. And she is good at it, I tell you.
Here’s to the Smiling Doc, rather, the Dancerous Doc!
