We’ve lost another physician to #covid and I’ve lost a friend. It seems silly to announce it on social media; no better than screaming into the void. But the public discourse on this pandemic needs these words. Many deaths become statistics, but this death is our tragedy.

He was on call 24/7/365. His patients had his cell number. He never balked at an ER consult. He was the old school doctor that so many of us wanted, neurologist who didn’t often ask me for an MRI.

He liked Vonnegut books and had an insatiable curiosity for life. He agreed with me that old people with vertigo were either “bullshit or badness”. He liked shooting the shit in the ER, a consultant who just came by for conversation.

He liked to bust my balls about the time he found a hip frx on a neuro patient I admitted. Not only did he find it, he ordered the xray, walked to radiology to read it with them, went to the OR and found ortho, and discussed the treatment plan. Then went and told the patient.

...and then he busted my balls.

In the last couple months he repeatedly told me that being a ER/inpatient consultant and running a clinic all at the same time was a bit much. He was pitching being an Emergency Neurologist.

He’d commandeer a computer, hang out in the ER all day, see any patients with neuro complaints (including all the dementia and delirium) and otherwise just help out.

It was a silly pipe dream, and we said maybe we’d see about it once all this Coronavirus mess blew over. What little community hospital has a neurologist stationed in the ER?

It’s going to be one of my biggest regrets that we didn’t get to try and make it work somehow. It would have been fun, and I bet it would have been good for our patients.

He used to send his long term patients to see us about non-neurologic issues. As an ER doc, it’s a honor having a specialist send someone to you for an opinion. Referrals aren’t usually a 2-way street, but he was one of us.

I’m sure he wouldn’t characterize his death as brave, or in the line of fire. He was just doing what he always did, taking care of patients. He even switched to tele visits just before he got sick.

But I know he is one of the many healthcare workers around the world who died doing their best to ease others suffering. This is heroic and should be remembered.