"Nidya's goal was to serve in the deepest region of Wondama Bay [West Papua]. She planned to become a specialist after giving birth," said her husband, Dr. Erdilian Jodi, 31, who, like his late wife, is also a doctor, working in the Saiful Anwar Hospital in Malang.

Dr. Nidya Ayu Respati Ayomi hailed from Jayapura. A young doctor born in 1991, Nidya died after contracting COVID-19 on July 16, while in her seventh month of pregnancy. Her doctor managed to save her infant, Daniel Gamaliel Reza Ayomi, but he did not survive for long and passed away on July 19.

Something that Erdilian admires about his wife was how she poured everything into her profession. In fact, in the third trimester of her pregnancy, Nidya still managed to help a patient give birth in the middle of the night. "If you look at the ER [emergency room], general practitioners work concurrently because there is hardly a doctor who can help in giving birth. Nidya helped this patient and her baby who are both now healthy,” Dr. Erdilian told The Jakarta Post.

Dr. Nidya is rested in Biak, Papua, Indonesia. As of Sept. 7, the Mitigation Team formed by the Executive Board of the Doctors Association has recorded 730 deaths of doctors in Indonesia. The number of general practitioners’ deaths is the highest within this figure and is dominated by deaths from outside Java.

Love at the first sight 

Erdilian recalled how he met Nidya for the first time in 2013. They were in the same class in the Faculty of Medicine at Wijaya Kusuma University, Surabaya, and met again while both doing a co-assistant program. "I already knew that Nidya was the one. I remembered Nidya's cheerful and outgoing personality, humility, good manners and beauty. Those are the reasons why I became interested in her," said Erdilian who finally asked Dr. Nidya to be his girlfriend a year after they had worked together. In addition to her cheerful personality, Erdilian added that his wife was very friendly to children and often carried and helped them. She never complained about helping those who needed the assistance of a doctor. 

Erdilian considers his wife as someone who was highly religious. He said that this convinced him that she was the woman he was looking for. They went through many experiences together, including graduating as doctors in 2016 and completing internships at the Abepura Jayapura Hospital and Waena Health Center from August 2016 to July 2017.

The couple married on Nov. 18, 2018, coinciding with Nidya's birthday. Together they served in Papua until 2020, before Dr. Erdilian decided to continue his internal medicine specialist study at Brawijaya University, Malang. Despite the long-distance relationship, Nidya and Erdilian were committed to communicating frequently. “We experienced many ups and downs. Even though we were busy, we always communicated every day, either by telephone, chat or video calls, although sometimes we were hampered with a bad internet connection. We always cried together when we missed each other because of the long distance between Malang and Papua,” recalled Erdilian.

Shattered dreams of a family

This year, Nidya and Erdilian had planned to start their family.

“My sadness after losing Nidya cannot be expressed in words. Losing a wife, a very good life partner who is humble, friendly, generous and cheerful, and who means a lot to my life, it broke my heart into pieces. Our desire to have a happy family and raise a child ran aground,” said Erdilian, adding that they had both waited two and a half years to have a child.

Despite losing his wife and child in the same week, Erdilian believes that God's plan is the best for him. A few weeks before his wife's passing, Erdilian received a gift and his final letter from her. "July 3 was my birthday. My wife sent me a cake and her last personal notes for me. She wrote, ‘my prayers are always with you, may God take care of you in your duties and help you to achieve your endeavors.’" 

Erdilian would never have imagined that this year he would lose everything. 

 A woman with a big heart 

“Even if she was on duty that night, she always brought something for the on-duty nurses in the Emergency Unit Installation. If there were patients who could not walk home after treatment, she would give them the transportation fee,” recalled Dr. Erdilian.

A similar sentiment was also expressed by childhood and school friend of Nidya’s, Dr. Mayanti Virna Patabang, 30. According to Mayanti, Nidya had always been a good person, even as a child. Mayanti still remembers how her childhood best friend helped her at the beginning of primary school. "When I was in primary school my parents did not pick me up from school, so Nidya invited me to come home with her even though we only knew each other by name," she also remembered Nidya as one of the brightest children at school. Mayanti remembered how her friend excelled in class and already had dreams to be a doctor.

“The last thing she said to me was ‘Maak [Nidya’s nickname for Mayanti] please pray for me and my child so that we can meet you and Hana [Mayanti’s child]’ I still remember it crystal clear, and I always cry remembering those words.” 

Mayanti herself was part of the COVID-19 frontliners in late 2020. She hopes that the government will take things seriously. "More precisely, perhaps in eastern areas like us here in Papua. Health facilities and human resources for health are still very lacking, especially in remote areas,"

“I suggest the government see this as a serious matter and that the life of every health worker who has fallen is valuable. The welfare of health workers, especially those facing this pandemic directly, really needs to be improved.”

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