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SAN ANTONIO
MEDICINE

Oath by Webex was only the beginning of an demic, from her second week in the hospital, But the holiday’s grandiose messages suddenly
altered reality. when a patient showed up wheezing and fever- felt more real. Resilience, survival, sacrifice—
Regardless of their chosen specialties, these ish. “He was whisked away by doctors in full none of these was theoretical anymore.
residents would support the internal medicine protective gear. Everybody on Iris’s floor Passover had all sorts of obvious parallels to
units. Sam reported for assignment at Bellevue started whispering about whether that patient their new reality. They were celebrating liber-
Hospital on April 13. New York State would had the novel disease.” ation in a time of real-life plague.”
lose 778 more patients by the time he started In March, travel from Europe to the United Through these young eyes, it becomes obvi-
his first shift in the morning. For a young gay States was suspended, and Iris made it back ous that in the hasty rush toward their future,
man in Greenwich Village, comparisons to the home just under the wire. But she barely be- preparation for dealing with a “real-life
HIV crisis were inevitable, particularly when lieved what she saw on arriving. She left a Paris plague” showed both strengths and weak-
living on blocks where entire populations had of hand sanitizers, Clorox wipes and face cov- nesses. One student initially wanting ER res-
vanished in the ’80s. erings and landed in a high-risk New York air- idency discovered the value of longer-term
Mindful of this, “Sam would develop an port. “There were points of possible patient relationships. Another finds his best
elaborate routine to douse himself in sanitizer transmission all around her: hands brushing purpose in the cardiac telemetry unit. But de-
and try to prevent any possibility of taking the at baggage claim, children sprawled on the spite a love for the technical aspects of health
virus home.” Face masking and hand scrub- linoleum ground, carts slung from passenger care, “he sensed there wasn’t anything that
bing were the new normal in this era. to passenger. She knew she was on the could have properly prepared him for the
Dr. Gabriela, from Massachusetts, also at- precipice of a historical moment.” telemetry floor during the pandemic.
tended NYU. Her story is emblematic of the Dr. Jay finds a sense of mission and duty in

heartache of separation from loved ones in the the crisis. Choosing to graduate early, her
“Every morning their hospital was
middle of a health crisis, made more poignant mentor advised that “it would be a learning
seeing five, six, seven codes. Before the
by struggling to deal with death on a daily and opportunity…given the scale of this pandemic,
pandemic, they would have seen five
hourly basis. This newly-minted doctor of Jay would likely have to care for COVID pa-
or so codes a week; at the COVID
Hispanic heritage was determined to become tients at some point, so it was better to start
a pediatrician and a role model. Instead, she early.” But families weren’t so sanguine, and peak they hit thirty per day.”
was propelled into hospice-like situations, her mother emailed concerns to Jay’s friends

where palliative care was the norm. Life in about her first day in the hospital:
It will be a long time before lessons from the
New York quickly became more arduous: just “As per an executive order signed by Gover-
pandemic are validated and incorporated into
going out to a neighborhood store called for nor Andrew Cuomo, Jay will graduate early
medical schools. Perhaps its effects will be as
face coverings and gloves like a covert mission. today from medical school and accelerate her
striking as those following the Flexner Report,
“But this was what the pandemic had done: entry into the medical workforce due to the
emphasizing even greater clinical experience.
turned the mundane into some cross between COVID-19 crisis.
Regardless, the effect on this particular class
heroism and paranoia,” even before sponta- It was supposed to be different.
of doctors is profound, and Emma Goldberg’s
neous cheering sections formed for health care I was supposed to have the incredible honor
reportage provides a snapshot not only of their
frontline workers coming and going. of hooding her on the stage of Lincoln Center.
preparedness to deal with the crisis, but the
Dr. Iris attended the Einstein College of I was not supposed to feel as if I’m sending
raw courage, determination and sense of duty
Medicine, a research-intensive medical school her off to war.”
in which today’s students face with unknown
located in the Bronx, part of the integrated Dr. Elana, also graduating Einstein School,
travail. Kairotic times, indeed.
Montefiore Health System. She had left in found her new role at odds with Orthodox Ju-
All quotes from “Life on the Line: Young
February for a study-abroad program, com- daism. She had to fit ancient prayers into new
Doctors Come of Age in a Pandemic” by
pleting her rotation at a hospital in Paris. She applications to fulfill her duty to God, as well
Emma Goldberg, Harper © 2021.
“didn’t know of reports that would suggest as her patients. Yet she also found resonance:

that the first coronavirus patient in France, a “Later that week was Passover. It was her first
David Alex Schulz, CHP is a
coughing fishmonger, had actually turned up time celebrating far from family; she was only
community member of the BCMS
in a Paris hospital on December 27.” comfortable seeing them outside when she
Publications Committee.
Dr. Iris portrays the global nature of the epi- dropped off groceries, not indoors for a meal.
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