RUNNING TOWARD doctors Shahid Aziz ’88 and Edward Lee ’92 explain how the COVID-19 pandemic changed life in their Newark, New Jersey, public hospital. BY JEN A. MILLER PHOTOGR APY BY DONNELLY MARKS
W
FEAR
hen the COVID-19 crisis started to mount in New Jersey in March 2020, University Hospital was on the front line. The Level I trauma center, based in Newark, is the only public hospital in New Jersey and it became a hub of COVID treatment and response for the region.
That response included Shahid Aziz ’88, D.M.D., M.D., professor and assistant dean of oral/max-
illofacial surgery and Edward S. Lee ’92, M.D., M.S., chief of plastic surgery at University Hospital, the principal teaching hospital for Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. While it might seem that they would be sidelined during the crisis, especially when elective surgeries were halted, both used their skills to make sure patients continued to be treated, whether their medical needs were COVID-related or not.
“When you’re faced with fear, you run toward that fear and try to help,” Lee says. SPRING
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