Heartbreaking photographs of a doctor wailing on the doorstep of her New York medical practice after losing her mother to coronavirus emerged on Thursday and lay bare the grief and horror of the pandemic.
Dr. Emancia Neil lost her mother, Minnette Parks, last week. Parks, 85, is among the 7,000 people to have died from virus across New York.
On Thursday, Dr. Neil posed for photographs holding up a portrait of her mother that had been signed by members of the community for her 80th birthday across the street from the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center.
She runs a medical center across from the hospital, which is among the dozens across New York City that have become overrun with victims since the pandemic exploded.
Dr. Emancia Neil lost her mother, Minnette Parks, last week. Parks, 85, is among the 7,000 people to have died from virus across New York
Dr. Neil agreed to be photographed and held up a portrait of her mother that friends had signed for her 80th birthday
There have been more than 4,200 deaths in New York City alone and over 80,000 cases.
Across America, more than 15,000 people have now died from the virus and thousands more are expected to succumb to it.
New York is thought to have hit its peak, with the number of new hospitalizations and ICU admissions hitting record lows on Wednesday.
The tragic second part of emerging from the virus spike is that many people who were admitted to the hospital in large waves last week are now dying.
It is due in a large part to how long they have been on a ventilator for, clinging to life.
According to startling new data, 80 percent of New York City’s ICU patients have been placed on ventilators.
It is a widely-held opinion in the medical community that the longer a person is on a ventilator, the less likely they are to ever come off it.
Despite the promising new indicators on hospitalization and ICU rates, the death toll continues to rise because people who were admitted to the hospital weeks ago are not recovering.
Gov Andrew Cuomo said Thursday: ‘We lost more lives yesterday than we have to date – 799. You are talking about 799 lives.
‘If you ever told me that as Governor, I’d have to take these actions…. I couldn’t even contemplate where we are now.’
He again drew comparisons between the current crisis and 9/11, when 2,977 died, to illustrate the scale of the disaster.
A doctor at Bronx Lebanon Hospital in the Bronx on Thursday. The hospital is among dozens in New York that have become overrun
A body is transferred out of the hospital on Thursday afternoon. More than 4,000 people have died from the virus in New York City
‘I lived through 9/11. That was supposed to be the darkest day in New York for a generation. We’ve lost 7,000 lives to this virus.
‘That is so tragic, so painful. I don’t even have words for it. 9/11 was so shocking, so tragic and in many ways we lose more New Yorkers to this silent killer. There’s been no explosion.
‘It was a silent explosion that just rippled through society with the same randomness, the same evil, that we saw on 9/11.
‘What do we do? We move forward and do the work we need to do,’ he said.
He is refusing to predict when the pandemic will be over, unlike Mayor Bill de Blasio who has repeatedly said the lockdown may last until May, saying: ‘I am not going to guess when the data will say we should change our practices.
‘How can you say that? Who can look forward and say, “this is where we’re going to be in three to four weeks.
‘You saw the projection models by the expert companies which frankly, were all off. So I’m not going to say to anyone, “this is where we’ll be.” I have no idea.
‘I don’t know if the curve goes up or goes down. It depends on what we do and we’ll know when we get there.
‘I have spoken to the smartest people in the world over the last few weeks and the smartest person will start by saying, “I don’t know.”
‘That, to me, is the sign of wisdom in all of this,’ he said.
He added that he was concerned about a possible second wave of infections and that the virus may mutate and resurface, data suggests it may be doing in Wuhan, where it originated, and Singapore.
‘This virus has been ahead of us from day one. We underestimated the enemy and that is always dangerous, my friends.
