As we mark one year since the pandemic changed our lives, we asked you to introduce us to your COVID heroes

When I first tested positive for COVID-19, I had minor symptoms — but mostly I was terribly tired and unable to do anything.

By Day 12, however, my husband and my cousin decided that even though I kept insisting I didn’t need a private doctor, it was time to get one. When he came, he explained that the breathing exercises that I had been so proud of doing in order to raise my saturation levels were not going to be enough. My oxygen levels had dipped as far down as 86 — and below 91 usually calls for supplementary oxygen. As the doctor said, to prevent further deterioration of my condition, I would need to be doing breathing exercises for 24 hours a day, which is impossible.

And that is when I got to meet my COVID hero in person. When my husband had decided that he wanted a private doctor, my cousin gave him the number of the organization Chasdei Amram. I had read about them months earlier in Mishpacha, never imagining that I would be using their services. They assigned us a coordinator, a tzaddik by the name of Elimelech Amsel, an English speaker just like us, originally from Monsey.

It was Elimelech who’d arranged for the doctor to visit me in my home. Twenty minutes after the doctor updated him about my oxygen levels, he showed up, shlepping an oxygen concentrator. He proceeded to show me how to use it and demonstrated how to inject myself with one of the medicines the doctor had prescribed.

Elimelech stayed in touch throughout my illness, even explaining how to wean myself off the oxygen machine. He said that once I was off the machine, it was important to get some blood tests done to make sure that I wouldn’t be in any danger of blood clots. Remember; these are not trained doctors and nurses. And yet they are so professional as to even advise on the follow-up care.

I truly believe that the volunteers at Chasdei Amram may have saved my life. Every day that I was able to eat the limited foods that I wanted, that I was able to sleep when I needed to, that I was able to move around my own house to keep my blood flowing and thereby prevent a stroke, and that I was able to sit on my porch and enjoy the fresh Yerushalmi air and the sun of Eretz Yisrael, I kept repeating, “Chasdei Shamayim via Chasdei Amram.”

—Srif Cohen

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 854)