BRONX TIMES REPORTER, J BTR ULY 30-AUG. 5, 2021 37
— one person may be intubated,
but at the peak of COVID,
dozens were intubated
daily.
“It was incredible to see
somebody oxygen starved
when they came in and two
hours later, they were dead,”
he said.
In March 2020, Koeppel,
who lives in Maine, reached
out to Meyer to see how he
was doing as the pandemic
was beginning to wreak
havoc in New York — the
epicenter of the virus at that
time. Meyer told him things
were horrible.
Koeppel, with a writer’s
mindset, asked Meyer to begin
taking notes about everything
that he does or sees in
the emergency room. After a
couple weeks of chatting on
the phone, Koeppel realized
they had the potential for a
book.
“Dan immediately came
to New York and dissected everything
that was Montefi ore
and the Bronx,” Meyer said.
Koeppel stayed for several
months and immersed himself
in the community. However,
during that time he got
bladder cancer and Meyer
was left to do a lot of the writing
on his own.
So, for a few months,
Meyer felt like he was back in
middle school. Fortunately,
Koeppel was able to beat cancer
and help fi nish the book.
“I don’t mind writing, but
what Dan can do, it’s so humbling,”
Meyer said.
“Every Minute is a Day”
dives into the struggles the
doctors, nurses and patients
faced and how they coped
with everything.
While Meyer described
writing the book as cathartic,
it was also quite emotional.
No one at the hospital
had ever witnessed so much
death, he said. The worst part
was the medical staff was often
the last contact patients
had before they died; during
that time visitors were not allowed
in the hospital.
“That was the hardest
part,” Meyer said. “We had
to deal with people dying
alone.”
So, Meyer began the routine
of writing down the
names of the patients that
succumb to the virus each
day, and the next morning he
would call their families and
speak with them about their
loved ones last moments.
“What was so heartwarming
is the family members I
would speak to on the phone
would comfort me,” he said.
In his decades-long career,
Meyer never did anything
like that or spend 45 minutes
each day signing death certifi
cates.
One patient that stood
out to Meyer, he refers to as
“baseball dad” in his book.
The man came into the hospital
overweight with asthma
and immediately asked to
be put on a ventilator. Since
Meyer is a Yankee fan and
the man’s son was trying out
for his college baseball team,
the two quickly bonded over
America’s pastime.
“I looked at him in the
eyes and promised him a
ventilator,” Meyer said.
“Even though I shouldn’t
have made that promise, I
would have done anything to
keep him alive.”
The patient survived COVID,
and once discharged he
sent Meyer a picture of his
son on the baseball diamond.
Another key aspect covered
in the book was how the
medical staff handled the
pandemic. They worked long
hours, didn’t take breaks
and barely had time to eat.
No one knew how to cope or
combat the deadly virus, but
they did the best they could,
Meyer said.
They had weekly meetings
with Montefi ore’s Medical
Director Deborah White
who made sure to check in
on everybody.
“It was incredible to hear
everybody say the same
thing: ‘I go home, I cry, I
strip down in the garage, I
don’t want to get my family
sick and I’m scared,’” Meyer
said.
While he never knew
what to expect when he
agreed with Koeppel to write
the book, Meyer is now glad
he did.
“COVID is almost a backdrop
about a book of people
coming together under times
of duress,” Meyer said. “The
spirit, compassion and the
best of people came out during
the worst time of our lifetime,
and we rose to the occasion
and did what we had
to do. I’m really proud of everyone
that’s in this book
and that worked during that
time.”
“Every Minute is a Day” about working on the front lines of COVID-19 was
written by Dan Koeppel and Dr. Robert Meyer.
James E. MaQuade, Owner
Family Owned & Operated for over 60 years
3535 East Tremont Avenue
Bronx, New York
718-792-0270
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