Here we have a photo of a couple – both of them doctors – who are standing together with half of a heart drawn on the blue personal protective equipment each of them are wearing to create one whole heart with a message sending their love to their three month old baby at home in their last few minutes before starting work.

“Dr Sela and Dr Pheara love Panhatey!”

Volunteering through the Youth Volunteer Association of Samdech Techo (TYDA), the couple was about to go on duty as frontline medical personnel working directly with Covid-19 infected patients at Koh Pich city hall in April.

The picture of them in hazmat suits with an expression of love written across them for their newborn first child has now gone viral – but in the good sense of the word.

Many people were moved by how they were both willing to sacrifice for the nation even though they had an adorable 3-month-old daughter together.

Seeing the rising need for doctors to treat the patients afflicted with Covid-19 in Cambodia after the February 20 outbreak occurred, doctors Bun Sela and Sok Pheara decided to volunteer to be frontline medical personnel working directly with infected patients.

“As parents of course who wouldn’t miss their firstborn child and want to stay beside them? It’s even tougher since she was just welcomed into the world about three months ago,” Sela tells The Post.

“But in this situation we know that as doctors our decisions matter more than ever. We just couldn’t embrace our own happiness and ignore our duty or hesitate when the nation needs us the most,” Sela continued.

Before volunteering for their mission with TYDA, Dr Sela and Dr Pheara tried to wean their baby girl so that she would drink formula instead of breast milk. They also tried to let the baby get used to sleeping with her grandparents.

“The first few days she cried when she wasn’t able to see us but later on she seemed to adapt,” Sela says.

When asked before his mission if he was afraid to serve in the capacity of frontline medical worker, Sela, a third year general surgeon and gastroenterologist, answered that of course he is – but the fear of infection didn’t excuse him from what he felt was a duty to his people.

“We’ve learned all of the theories about how to protect ourselves from Covid-19, but now we’re actually in that situation. It seems unpredictable. But we still choose to stand up and do our duty because if we don’t then who will help our people?

“We want to be role models and inspire the next generation of doctors. We want to give courage to those who are ready to volunteer and to those who have not yet decided. Through our experiences we want them to find the courage to stand for the nation and see that we can overcome this,” the 25-year-old volunteer doctor says.

Having spent some time on the frontlines now after starting their mission on April 14, Sela reassures us that the experience is not as scary as he used to think it would be.

Sela says the amount of precautions taken when treating Covid-19 infected patients is extremely high. The treatments wards are designed so that they have a flow for doctors to visit each patient’s bed and they have a different flow to walk back and exit. Everything is under tight security.

He said they have an isolation room where they remove their personal protective equipment after everything is disinfected and they even wear more equipment than is standard with another face shield and pair of thick gloves.

Sela noted the many problems that a lack of reliable information about the virus had caused among his patients.

“Most of the patients arrive in a panic. They arrive thinking that Covid always leads to a serious life-threatening medical condition, but that’s not true. For the majority of patients it won’t feel any worse than a mild case of the flu,” he says.

Therefore, he says, he and the other doctors have tried their best to encourage them not to worry. They tell them that they should eat well, get plenty of fluids and rest up while they are under their care and if their situation starts to worsen they will have doctors giving them immediate assistance.

Sela says that the doctors do a daily follow-up with every patient and give them treatment according to their symptoms from the first day until they’re fully recovered.

After five days all patients are tested again for Covid-19 – and if they test negative twice, they are allowed to go home. Doctors prepare documents for them and they can then finish their quarantine period at home.

Sela says the most memorable time during his mission was a day at Koh Pich when he saw around 834 patients recover and be able to go back to their own homes.

“When patients approach you saying thank you for taking care of them and now they can reunite with their kids and their family at home – that really means something.

“It’s a simple thing, but those moments will be the ones that I remember forever from this experience. I’m always excited to see my patients go home healthy and that day – with over 800 of them successfully recovering – I just felt a strong conviction that our nation would soon overcome these hard times together,” Sela says.

With their mission ended, Sela and Pheara – along with 45 other doctors – had to quarantine for 14 days at a hotel.

Afterwards – if all of them tested negative – then this army in white uniforms would finally be able to return to their own homes.

The day of their second tests came on May 18 and everyone from their group thankfully tested negative, including Sela and Pheara, who have now been able to reunite with their baby daughter after only seeing her on their phones for so many weeks.

Sela says that he would advise the next team of doctors to eat healthy foods and get enough rest – similar advice to what they should give to Covid-19 patients in order to strengthen their immune systems to fight off the disease.

He further says that this mission taught him many things, but the two that stand out are the importance of strong teamwork – and the importance of just being grateful to live an ordinary life.

“When we were on duty, removing the personal protective equipment at the end of our shift was really the most dangerous part. We were like people all riding in the same boat and sailing through stormy weather. It takes a lot of cooperation and teamwork to avoid sinking.

“We had to be extremely careful and we had to help one another. If one of us failed, we all would fail. There were many people onboard, but there was just one boat – and if it sinks, we all would sink with it. That is the most important lesson that I’ve learned,” Sela says.