QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, July 30, 2020 Page 22
C M CELEB page 22 Y K QUEENS STRONG
ER doctor returns to the COVID-19 fight Dr. Shi-Wen Lee of Jamaica Hospital Medical Center beat the disease by Michael Gannon Editor
For latest news visit 23RDthe ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF qchron.com QUEENS • 2020
Dr. Shi-Wen Lee of Jamaica Hospital Medical Center is back in the fight against COVID-19 after two weeks as a patient. COURTESY PHOTO
He followed every protocol, taken every reasonable precaution and then some. Yet Dr. Shi-Wen Lee, vice chairman of the Emergency Medicine Department at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center was not greatly surprised in March when he began feeling some of the first symptoms of the coronavirus. “I work in the emergency room,” he said. “I’m exposed to everything in New York City. And we are the [emergency] hospital for Kennedy Airport, where people come from all over the world.” The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene confirmed JHMC’s first COVID-19 death on March 11, with the hospital issuing a press release the next day. The hospital pointed out that the very circumstances that at first might cause residents concern also allowed people to be sure that JHMC was there and ready. “As a hospital with close proximity to JFK Airport and one that treats an ethnically diverse population, Jamaica Hospital has a great deal of experience treating a variety of contagious diseases and we will continue to be here for out community throughout this global outbreak.” Beginning ten days later, between March 21
and early April, Lee had a patient’s eye view and “I was alone,” he said. “If something hapreflections om the illness and its treatment for pened, my wife couldn’t make any decisions nearly two weeks. — I would have to make them myself.” Lee, like many in the medical profession The crisis, luckily, passed in just under two already had been self-quarantining from his weeks family at home by staying in their basement. He Lee was back in the fight at JHMC in did not have the complete isolation to which April. The terms “easy” and “busy” day are some people had to adjust. relative ones when one holds Lee’s position. “A lot of doctors, nurses were sleeping in “Can you call back in two minutes?” he their basements, on the floor, in garages,” he asked last Thursday, having just finished a said. “I could still see my family, see their faces task that required his personal attention. at the top of the steps,” he said. “I’m feeling pretty good,” he said. “InitialIt was family members and his professional ly I was very weak. I’d lost a of muscle mass. I brethren who first noticed a change. lost 14 pounds.” “My family, colleagues on calls said I soundHe still hasn’t recovered his sense of smell. ed out of breath, that I was getting winded Lee also said COVID-19 seems to have between sentences,” he said. changed seem patient’s It manifested itself the families upon learning of a first five to six days like a loved one’s death. “ tough of the f lu with a “I thin k the medical ometimes there is a cough. com mu nit y as a whole “I thought I had a mild need for family. feels bad for the suffercase.” ng of t he fa m ilies. These circumstances iSomet Then came he headache i me s t h e r e is a and fever. n e e d t o h ave f a m i l y. don’t allow that.” “Then my son came These circumstances home one day. He said don’t allow that.” — Dr. Shi-Wen Lee ‘You don’t look good ...’” Lee said one surprise has As circumstances would been the reaction of the have it, he was not treated at JHMC. families of COVID-19 victims upon learning “I would have loved to be at Jamaica and get that their loved one has died. that extra TLC,” he said. “Unfortunately, when There are the reactions he has come to they take you out of the house in an ambulance, expect, such as anger and denial. they don’t give you a choice.” “With others, it’s more a sense of resignaAfter admission, Lee was able to read the tion,” he said. screen of a portable X-ray they took of his chest, He believes it also has taken a toll not just specifically the lungs. on the doctors and nurses who re charged with “It [coronavirus] was everywhere,” he said. frontline care. Having treated COVID-19 patients in various Lee said people such as admission clerks, stages of the illness, he knew, intellectually, technicians and other hospital personnel also some of the difficulties and decisions patients have been seeing more and sicker patients and their families are forced to confront. than even veterans at their jobs are accusLee then had time to reflect on them, in a set- tomed to seeing. ting far more isolated than his basement, with “Doctors and nurses are used to dealing with Q only his caretakers coming to see him. death,” Lee said, “They aren’t.”
S
Staffers and volunteers with Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens has been running targeted neighborhood-level food pantries to keep residents supplied with meals, fresh FILE PHOTO produce and grocery staples.
Heroes for Queens’ hungry continued from page 14 “At a place where some days you have one or two people there when you show up, you can have 50 or 60 when you’ve got plantains,” he said. Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens has had its own army of 20 staffers and more than 130 volunteers in the field. Since March the group has provided more than half a million meals at pop-up food pantries around the Diocese of Brooklyn; and thousands more at its 20 parishbased pantries.
All the organizations are accepting donations from those who are able to assist them financially. Infor mation on the agencies, their efforts and how to contribute can be obtained online. City Harvest’s website is cityharvest.org. Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens can be reached at ccbq.org. Information on Citymeals on W heels is available at citymeals.org. The Food Bank of New York City can be Q reached at foodbanknyc.org.
With a long history of dealing with the ever-diversifying population of Queens and patients from around the world coming from John F. Kennedy International Airport, Jamaica Hospital Medical PHOTO BY MICHAEL GANNON Center was ready for a contagious disease pandemic.
