56 Days (An Excerpt)
My name is Matthew. I am a minimally invasive surgeon in the gynecology department at Penn, where I’m an associate professor. I contracted coronavirus very early, and then I rapidly deteriorated. So I was intubated, and I remained in the intensive care unit for about 50 days and I remained on the ventilator for over 30 days. I suffered a stroke early on.
Through this whole process and my rehabilitation, I realized that I'm probably not going operating on anyone soon. I'm going to reinvent myself. I don't know how, but I'm going to find a way to be resilient and to have a career. We all go into medicine to help others. And there's still that need to help. I think that helper gene is going to be there for me forever.
My name is Matthew. I am a minimally invasive surgeon in the gynecology department at Penn, where I’m an associate professor. I contracted coronavirus very early, and then I rapidly deteriorated. So I was intubated, and I remained in the intensive care unit for about 50 days and I remained on the ventilator for over 30 days. I suffered a stroke early on.
Through this whole process and my rehabilitation, I realized that I'm probably not going operating on anyone soon. I'm going to reinvent myself. I don't know how, but I'm going to find a way to be resilient and to have a career. We all go into medicine to help others. And there's still that need to help. I think that helper gene is going to be there for me forever.
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