Doctor Refuses Retirement To Fight Pandemic, Dies From COVID-19

A doctor in New York who eschewed retirement to continue working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic has died from COVID-19.

Pulmonologist James Mahoney, who worked at the University Hospital of Brooklyn and Kings County Hospital Center, died on April 27. He was 62 and had been a physician for almost four decades, reported The New York Times.

Mahoney ignored calls from family and friends to retire from his job as the outbreak intensified, according to the newspaper. He developed a fever and cough in early April. Both are symptoms of the disease that has now killed more than 90,000 people in the U.S.

Even after testing positive for the virus, Mahoney continued holding telemedicine sessions with patients while self-isolating. He was hospitalized at University Hospital on April 20 and died a week later at Tisch Hospital.

Mahoney “ran in when others ran out,” his older brother Dr. Melvin Mahoney, who stopped seeing patients at the start of the outbreak, told Newsday. “He died doing what he loved to do best. He would not have it any other way.”

Neurologist Julien Cavanagh, a colleague of Mahoney at SUNY Downstate, described him as “one of our legends – he’s one of our giants,” reported The Guardian. 

Other co-workers called Mahoney, a father of three, “a legend” and “our Jay-Z” for Black medical professionals.