National Jewish Health Doctors Travel To New York To Help With Coronavirus Patients
DENVER (CBS4)- Doctors are needed on the front lines in areas hardest hit by COVID-19, and National Jewish Health in Colorado is among the hospitals answering the call for help. Mohammad Dalabih is an assistant professor of medicine and intensive care doctor there.
"I cannot sit out of the critical care challenge of my lifetime not doing anything," Dalabih said of the coronavirus pandemic.
For the next seven days, he will be on the front lines at Mount Sinai West in New York City.
"The whole ICU is COVID-19, pneumonia and it's just bizarre to have every single body in the ICU with the same diagnosis," he said.
He's now the fourth doctor from National Jewish Health to make the trip.
Dr. Gabriel Lockhart just returned and is now quarantined in his home in Denver.
"It was pretty obvious they just needed as much help from a bodies perspective as they could," he said.
Knowing his hospital here in Colorado had adequate staff for the current number of COVID-19 patients in their care, he didn't hesitate to volunteer.
"We were able to report back to our team in Denver, what we were finding and what's some different changes that this group was incorporating, what worked for them and what didn't work for them and what can we do with the headstart that they didn't have," Lockhart said.
While providing support where it's needed most, both doctors also know they are gaining valuable knowledge they can use at home, should there be a similar surge in patients.
"There's a mutual benefit between our groups, and the people of Denver will notice this benefit with our experience in New York," he said.
Of course they would much rather avoid the need altogether and are a calling on Coloradans to make sure it doesn't come to that.
"Just please stay home," Dalabih said.
National Jewish plans to send another team of doctors to New York when the Dalabih and his fellow doctor return, but it will be made on a case-to-case basis depending on what is happening in Colorado.
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