Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn. Photo via Google Maps
HOSPITAL WORKERS IN BROOKLYN WHO TREATED CITY’S
FIRST CORONAVIRUS FATALITY WENT INTO ISOLATION
BY ALEJANDRA O'CONNELLDOMENECH
The first coronavirus patient
in New York City to die
from complications of the illness
— an 82-year-old woman
from Ridgewood, Queens, who
succumbed Saturday morning
at Brooklyn’s Wyckoff Heights
Medical Center — had sent the
medical personnel who first
treated her into precautionary
quarantines, according to the
hospital’s CEO.
None of the personnel,
which includes FDNY ambulance
workers along with
Wyckoff emergency staff and
physicians, has shown any
symptoms of COVID-19, Ramon
Rodriguez told amNewYork
Metro Saturday. They will
return to work at the hospital
when the quarantine is lifted
on Wednesday, March. 17, he
said. All those asked to selfquarantine
were sent home
with pay.
Rodriguez said a “good
amount” of personnel on duty
the day the patient arrived
at Wyckoff Heights, March 3,
went into self-quarantine; he
did not specify the exact number
due to privacy concerns.
About 250 people are seen
in day at Wyckoff’s emergency
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.20 COM | MARCH 20-MARCH 26, 2020
room, according to Rodriguez;
when flu season hits,
that number can spike up to
300 a day. There are about 100
people who work in Wyckoff’s
adult and pediatric emergency
departments, which
are connected. At any given
moment, there are roughly 40
doctors, nurses, physician extenders
and residents on the
ER floor.
“We have one of the busiest
emergency rooms of any
community hospital,” Rodriguez
said. “The only hospitals
that see more people than we
do are very large teaching
hospitals.”
The 82-year-old woman
had advanced emphysema and
passed at around 3 a.m Saturday
morning. It is unclear
exactly why the woman was
transported to the hospital by
ambulance on March 3, but
Rodriguez said it could have
been because she was having
difficulty breathing.
Many patients with advanced
emphysema suffer
through periods where they
are unable to breathe. She was
cared for by a daughter who
lived with her.
After the woman tested
positive for COVID-19, her
daughter placed herself in
quarantine at home and is asymptomatic,
Rodriguez said.
Shortly after the 82-yearold
arrived at Wyckoff’s emergency
room, Rodriguez noted,
she was placed in isolation in a
negative pressure room. Only
one other person who received
care in the same emergency
room has tested positive for
COVID-19, and they entered
the hospital 10 days after the
82-year-old woman arrived to
the hospital and were transferred
to another facility four
days later.
No other patients have
tested positive for the virus,
Rodriguez added.