Dr. Frank Gabrin, 60, an emergency room doctor who treated patients with symptoms of the virus, died after showing similar symptoms while attempting to recover at home.
He reportedly used the same surgical mask for a week due to equipment shortages before he died, according to his friend quoted in the New York Post.
While he wasn’t tested for the virus, he was the first emergency physician to die of COVD-19 virus complications, the American College of Emergency Physicians confirmed in a statement.
Gabin was a two-time cancer survivor who worked at New Jersey’s East Orange General Hospital as well as another hospital in Long Island and at St John’s Hospital in the New York City borough of Queens.
“He was an amazing doctor. He loved to take care of people. He was an angel,” described Arnold Vargas, Gabrin’s husband, told the Post.
The chairman of East Orange General Hospital’s Emergency Department, Dr. Alvaro Alban, noted Gabrin was “delightful, caring and wonderful to work with.”
“He had every intention to help. He was eager to keep working in the E.D. and was disappointed when he started to get symptoms. His intention was that his fever would break. Dr. Gabrin was motivated, on a mission and wanted to keep working,” he told WNBC in a statement.
Newsweek