DUBAI: The past two weeks have changed Dagmar Fogelstrom’s life for ever. Never before has the 70-year-old Swedish tourist seen such warmth and generosity. And never before has she needed it the most.
To the regular hiss of an oxygen pump and displays of red digital readings in this room in the Intensive Care Unit at Dubai’s Rashid Hospital, Dagmar stands vigil by her husband’s bedside, monitoring Yngve Nilsson’s vital signs as they weaken with each passing hour. A young pastor from the Church of Sweden Abroad stays with her, providing comfort in these hours of need.
But Dagmar needs little now, except for some sign of hope that her 72-year-old partner Yngve will somehow recover. That’s a possibility that’s becoming more remote with each passing moment here in the ICU.
She leaves his bedside briefly.
“There’s no real chance that he will recover,” she says, cutting a stoic figure in these final hours of pain.
But there is at least a positive for Dagmar.
“Never before have I seen such generosity and kindness,” she tells Gulf News. “At home in Sweden, I am just a low person,” she says, lowering her hand to show her standing in society. “Here, I have been given — all of this.”
Dagmar sits in an office of Ayesha Saeed Al Kindi, the Head of Case Management at Rashid Hospital. A week ago, they were strangers, from different ends of the Earth — now they are bound together by the acts of generosity and kindness that has touched Dagmar and her family forever.
“I did not know who he was,” Dagmar says, pointing a photograph on a calendar on Al Kindi’s desk. The photograph is of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. And he has been touched by the story of the retired bus driver who fell critically ill during a holiday to the UAE.
Everything is being looked after by Shaikh Mohammad.
The couple have six children and ten grandchildren between them. Dagmar and Yngve were both divorced when they met but were determined to make the most of the rest of their life together. And they loved to travel, making memories and sharing adventures in two trips to Cyprus and one to Egypt in the past year.
The week’s package trip from Gothenburg to Fujairah fitted their small budget and pensions. Yes, Yngve had a pre-existing lung condition that was getting worse, but he felt well enough to make the pre-Christmas trip, leaving on Dec. 10. Besides, they liked the sound of the hotel on the beach in Fujairah — Dagmar still can’t manage to remember how it’s pronounced — and it was somewhere different and off the beaten track.
“He started getting sick on the beach,” she recalls.
That was the day they arrived.
“We went to Dibba hospital and Yngve spent several days there,” she said.
With the week’s holiday scheduled to end on Dec. 17, the medical staff in Dibba managed to stabilise Yngve’s condition. He was given a cylinder of oxygen and the couple took a taxi to Al Maktoum International Airport in Jebel Ali. There they hoped he would be well enough to board the flight back home to recover in time for a family Christmas.
But that wasn’t to be.
“We had a long meeting with the pilots and officials at the airport,” she recalls. Ultimately, the aircraft crew decided Yngve was too ill to travel.
“They called an ambulance and we were brought here,” Dagmar explains.
Shaikh Mohammad’s office heard about the couple’s plight and, on his personal intervention, organised everything that Dagmar and Yngve would need.
The hospital bills are looked after. So too are Dagmar’s accommodation.
“I have never experienced such generosity before,” Dagmar says. “I can only say ‘thank you’ to the hospital, to the staff and to Shaikh Mohammad.”
As she talks, a small Nokia phone in her modest black purse rings.
“I’ll take it in a minute,” she says, continuing her words of appreciation for all that Shaikh Mohammad and the government of the UAE has done for her.
“I called the Swedish embassy when Yngve became ill” she says. “A woman there gave me a number and told me to call if ‘something’ — like Yngve’s death — happens. She then called me back and told me that she was going on holiday and here was another number to call.”
Dagmar called that number and was told that the embassy was closed until next week for Christmas.
“There is little hope,” she says. “It’s only a matter of time.”
The Nokia phone rings again.
It’s the Swedish pastor.
Yngve has taken a turn for the worse.
“Excuse me,” Dagmar says. “I have to go.”
This Christmas morning, she flies home to Gothenburg with Yngve’s remains in a private jet provided by Shaikh Mohammad.
