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David Murray was driving along the “soy highway”, one of the few roads to cut straight across the Amazon rainforest in Brazil as he worked his way north to �����Գٲ���é��. A critical job awaited him: He had to repair a computed tomography (CT) scanner – a device used to help make an initial diagnosis of potential COVID-19 patients. “A CT scan soon became the first diagnostic resource for COVID-19 for diagnosis, prognosis, and for monitoring the patients,” explains Nádia Alves, MD, Administrative Director of Centro de Diagnóstico Por Imagem Tapajós in �����Գٲ���é��. One day, the CT system broke down unexpectedly and they had to call the engineer for maintenance. It was most likely that an imaging tube had to be replaced. Generally, such jobs are no problem for Murray, but the hospital in �����Գٲ���é�� is located more than 1,300 kilometers from his hometown of Belém.

After two days of driving through heavy rain over slippery, flooded, and unpaved state roads through the rainforest, over unfinished bridges and dodging falling rocks from the paths flanking slopes, Murray and his colleague finally arrived at the hospital. “They arrived at the site at 8 o´clock and worked until the CT scanner was running again. They were very efficient,” says Nádia Alves. 

“After we had fixed the scanner, I knew that I had done my duty. I thought of the many patients who were waiting to use the equipment and continue with their treatment. We felt that every effort dedicated to the service was rewarded,” David Murray recalls with a smile. Without a CT scanner at this point in the pandemic, many lives would have been lost.