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COURIER LIFE, APRIL 1-7, 2022
BY KIRSTYN BRENDLEN
Resident physicians and fellows
gathered outside Brookdale
University Hospital Medical
Center on March 22 for a
candlelit vigil commemorating
two years since the start of the
coronavirus pandemic in New
York City, honoring the lives
lost to the disease, the trauma
healthcare workers have endured,
and calling out the ongoing
disparities people of color
face in accessing healthcare in
the city.
Headed by the Committee of
Interns and Residents, the largest
union representing residents
and fellows — essentially doctors
in-training — in hospitals
across the country, the vigil gathered
doctors from One Brooklyn
Health, a system of hospitals
and medical facilities including
Brookdale, the Kingsbrook Jewish
Medical Center, and the Interfaith
Medical Center.
“We love and care so very
much for our communities, and
because we do, we have fought
tirelessly and remained steadfast
in our commitment to serve
our communities,” said Ernest
Rin, chief resident physician of
emergency medicine at Brookdale.
“And in doing so, my fellow
interns and residents have sacrifi
ced signifi cant time, time to
refl ect upon our experiences.”
Communities of color, including
the ones One Brooklyn
serves, were hit particularly
hard by the pandemic. According
to The Atlantic’s now-defunct
COVID Tracking Project,
Black and Hispanic New Yorkers
were signifi cantly more
likely to be hospitalized with a
serious case of COVID and to die
from the disease.
Early data collected in a
state-commissioned survey by
the University of Albany found
that Black and Hispanic workers
Frontline healthcare workers hold a vigil marking two years of the COVID-19 pandemic outside of Brookdale Hospital in
Brownsville. Photos by Caroline Ourso
made up a signifi cant portion
of essential workers and
were less likely than white New
York City residents to be able
to work from home, increasing
their risk of exposure to the virus.
The study, released in July
2020, also notes that social determinants
like discrimination,
systemic racism, and more
had not yet been accounted for,
but contributed to those higher
rates.
“As a kid I was a patient here
right at Brookdale Pediatrics
in the East Flatbush clinic, so
I know what the One Brooklyn
hospital system means to the
community, it means the world
to them,” said Colleen Achong,
an internal medicine resident at
Brookdale. “They are literally
the lifeline for people suffering
from some of the worst health
disparities and they should be a
place of refuge, of healing, and
of hope. During the pandemic,
healthcare workers tried desperately
to place our lives and
ourselves as shields between
the community and COVID.
We worked tirelessly, 24 hours,
24/7, until we fell asleep standing
up.”
While she was still a medical
student, Achong took on a role
as a mortuary manager at the
Interfaith Medical Center as the
hospital grappled with the enormous
spike in fatalities in the
worst of the pandemic.
“We saw so much loss, so
many people were lost to COVID,”
she said. “My colleagues
and I did everything we could do
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Healthcare heroes gather for vigil to commemorate lives lost to the pandemic
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