Condolences: A Physician’s Brother Lost to COVID-19
Family physician Art Kaufman, MD, lost his brother, Marshall Kaufman to COVID-19. Below is Dr. Kaufman’s reflection.
My brother died of COVID-19 in a hospital in New York City at the grand old age of 86. But I think he died for lack of primary care.
NYC is famous for its specialists and for its dearth of primary care. He had a cardiologist, a neurologist and a dermatologist. But no primary care. So, no shingles shot, and he gets zoster encephalitis!
He spent two weeks in a skilled nursing facility, then home. Weak and unsteady from his recent illness, he falls, breaks his collar bone, and then two weeks in rehab center. There, he picks up coronavirus and died only days after admission to the hospital.
His care through all the above was great. But what triggered the cascade was a deficit of primary care. That’s why what our department does is so damned important.
Arthur Kaufman, M.D., Distinguished Professor of Family and Community Medicine and Vice Chancellor for Community Health, University of New Mexico
