“My whole way of looking at life has changed after this experience. I value the time I spend with my family and the people I cherish. I am reminded of why I chose to be a physician: to help people and to be compassionate.”
“From the time the crisis started, I was taking care of many, many patients with COVID-19 and I got sick. I knew I had the coronavirus—I had all the symptoms—but I just stayed home and tried to take care of myself. As the disease progressed, symptoms became more severe—shortness of breath, nonstop fever, chest pain and difficulty breathing.
Finally, I knew I had to go to the hospital. And I’m so glad I did, because not only did my COVID-19 test come back positive, I also had a very bad case of bacterial pneumonia. So then I was in the same unit where, 10 days earlier, I had been part of the Rapid Response Team. As sick as I was, I knew what was going on with patients whose conditions changed rapidly and would require critical care. That was a really rough experience, psychologically and emotionally.
As a doctor, you know in the back of your mind that these patients in cardiac arrest had been having the same symptoms you now have. I was, obviously, very afraid. At the same time, I knew I was being taken care of by phenomenal doctors and nurses at Clara Maass, and they were fantastic to me and everyone they treated. I am so thankful to them and to every single person, from technicians to housekeeping to security to transport. I was released after 10 days, and I was so happy and relieved. The worst day, however, was the day after that. That was when we learned that two of our colleagues had died.
My whole way of looking at life has changed after this experience. I value the time I spend with my family and the people I cherish. I am reminded of why I chose to be a physician: to help people and to be compassionate. Two weeks after I was released, I went back to work. We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing and fighting the good fight.”