On May 21, Dr Amal Muhammed Aburawi was fast asleep when her phone rang at 2.54am about an emergency case of a mother and her newborn. The Dubai-based gynaecologist’s mandate was clear: She had to reach the hospital in less than 20 minutes to save their lives. The commute normally takes anywhere between 45 minutes and one-and-a-half hours, depending on traffic.
Dr Amal, who is a consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology and head of department at Saudi German Hospital, told Khaleej Times that she jumped out of her bed, grabbed her car keys and sandals, and rushed to the hospital.
“I started counting the seconds. I didn’t know how would I do it as a regular journey without traffic takes about 45 minutes,” said the Libyan doctor, who lives in Jumeirah 1.
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On her way, Dr Amal saw a huge queue of cars at a junction. “I was driving even as I was on call with the hospital staff, advising them. While I was stuck in traffic around 2.59am, I kept flashing the headlights, requesting other motorists to give me way.”
That’s when she called the police control room from her other phone and explained the emergency. “They asked me if I wanted an escort, but I said no and explained that I just wanted them to know that I was speeding because of the emergency. There are over 15 radars from my home to the hospital and I did see some of them flashing.”
Dr Amal managed to reach the hospital at 3.11am — 17 minutes after she received the call. However, at the hospital, she realised that both mother and her newborn were in a critical condition. “Time was very precious. I quickly jumped into action to save them both.”
Both the mother and daughter were taken to the operation theatre for a surgery that lasted nearly two hours. “All praise to the Almighty, the newborn and the mother are doing absolutely fine,” said Dr Amal.
She decided to stay back at the hospital and continue working. “I went home at 7pm that evening.”
Dr Amal said she received a call from the Dubai Police control room in the evening after her work hours. “The first thing they enquired was about my safety and asked about the child’s health. They told me that they would look into my fines. They also informed me about this service called ‘Bin Wraiqa’ that is specifically meant for emergency cases like these.”
Launched in 2020, the service helps frontline doctors reach hospitals in time when called for emergencies. It sees police patrols escort doctors so they are not stuck in traffic.
On the fourth day after the incident, she saw some speeding related fines registered against her vehicle. “On June 3, when I checked my app, I was happy to see that the fines were waived off,” said Dr Aburawi. “Prior to this, I had never received a single fine or penalty on my vehicle.”