A great story with some good news during these troubled times, via Reuters:
Akos Vanek, a former triathlon World Cup winner, works as a paramedic these days in Budapest taking patients ill with COVID-19 to hospital as Hungary fights the coronavirus crisis.
Vanek, who won the 2014 Triathlon World Cup, hung up his running shoes after doing the triathlon for 22 years as he said he heard a “calling by God” to work as an ambulance crew member.
He joined the emergency services last November. Now he works day and night, dressed in personal protective gear and mask, resuscitating people if needed and administering coronavirus tests.
As of Sunday, Hungary had recorded more than 1,400 infections, with a death toll of 99.
Vanek’s baptism in the Catholic Church was planned for Easter, but churches are closed nationwide. Budapest’s Pasaret Franciscan church asked for permission to baptize Vanek in an empty church with only a few Franciscan monks present on Saturday night.
“My friend, a Protestant priest, took the night shift for me on the ambulance car so that I could make it to my baptism,” Vanek said before the evening ceremony.
Welcome home, Akos!
