Five young graduate doctors from Cork have quit their promising careers in Perth to fly home and help their country fight Covid-19.
The heroic medics will travel back from Australia over the weekend and hope to land on here on Tuesday.
One of them, Dr Danielle O’Brien, told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “It has been ramping up over the last few weeks.
“Each morning I would wake up to new reports on the number of cases and I was watching it getting closer to home.
“Then when the Minister for Health, Simon Harris, asked doctors to come out of retirement and international doctors to come home, you actually feel compelled to help.”
The 25-year-old, who graduated from UCC in 2018, admits that, although it was a quick decision, it was still not an easy one.
She explained: “There are a lot of doctors debating what to do, as it could hit here in Perth and they will need doctors also but right now, for me, Ireland is the place I believe I should be.
“We sat down as a group last Tuesday evening and decided that this was it...
we were going to quit our jobs and head home sooner rather than later. We didn’t want to be waiting for things to get worse or more travel bans to be imposed.”
Booking flights home was eye-opening as the young doctors watched prices soar while flights disappeared from their screens.
Danielle said: “Australia’s borders were closing on Friday at 9pm, which meant planes could take passengers out of the country but not into the country, so it was a frightening moment for all.”
She explained that family also played a major role in their decision, saying if something were to happen, at least they wouldn’t be on the other side of the world.
She explained: “We’ve signed up to the HSE on call and have been in touch with some of the hospitals but don’t have anything set in stone yet.
“Obviously when we get home we will have to self-isolate for two weeks so hopefully during that time we can reach out to the hospitals to let them know we are back and ready to work.”
