Story submitted by Rebecca Minardi, M.P.H.’12
My husband, Andy Michalowitz (DO, 2014), and I live in New York City with our 22-month-old son. Andy is a pediatric orthopedic surgery fellow at NYU Langone Hospital, and I am staying at home with our son and am 30 weeks pregnant. In mid-March, once the epidemic started getting bad in NYC, all surgeries other than those deemed emergencies were canceled. Andy remained on call, going in for these emergencies and looking after other patients in his care. As NYC increasingly came under siege, stores and schools closing, grocery stores running bare, and mass transit closed to all except for essential travel, we decided that our son and I would go to Ohio to live with my parents for a while. I quarantined in a cabin for two weeks and then reunited with my parents and several of my siblings who had also quarantined after traveling home from around the country. Andy stayed in NYC, and on Monday started working with COVID patients. NYU has received an influx of doctors as fourth-year medical students were able to graduate early; Andy therefor will probably be able to return to surgery soon. He has seen the resilience, courage and service of New Yorkers across the city from restaurants donating food to health care workers to quarantined apartment dwellers cheering from their balconies during hospital shift change. I plan on going back to NYC soon and hope that the epidemic in the city is on the wane.
