IT WAS THE LAST WEEK of the longest March in recorded history, and Mount Sinai Brooklyn was teetering on the brink of collapse. In the emergency department of the 212-bed community hospital in Midwood, more than 90 patients were crammed into a space that usually holds 30 or 40. Almost every one of them was short of breath. Emergency-room nursing director Bobby Lynch played a complex game of Tetris to extricate a patient from behind a five-deep row of stretchers, maneuvering him to one of the three dialysis-equipped bays, while department medical director Deborah Dean rushed to bring a portable oxygen tank to a patient whose skin was turning blue. The alarms indicating patients who required immediate resuscitation rang out in a deafening trill. Corpses lay under white sheets head to toe with the critically ill. Roughly a fifth of the hospital’s staff was sick with COVID-19, including the hospital’s president, Scott Lorin, who was coordinating reinforcements from a stretcher in Mount Sinai’s main branch on the Upper East Side. And according to the governor’s office, it was going to get worse. “We just looked at each other, and one of my co-directors said, ‘If this isn’t the peak, I’m afraid of what the peak will look like,’ ” Lynch recalls.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Trapped in Time
A woman relives the same day in a stunning Danish novel.
Polyphonic City
A SOFT, SHIMMERING beauty permeates the images of Mumbai that open Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light. For all the nighttime bustle on display-the heave of people, the constant activity and chaos-Kapadia shoots with a flair for the illusory.
Lear at the Fountain of Youth
Kenneth Branagh's production is nipped, tucked, and facile.
A Belfast Lad Goes Home
After playing some iconic Americans, Anthony Boyle is a beloved IRA commander in a riveting new series about the Troubles.
The Pluck of the Irish
Artists from the Indiana-size island continue to dominate popular culture. Online, they've gained a rep as the \"good Europeans.\"
Houston's on Houston
The Corner Store is like an upscale chain for downtown scene-chasers.
A Brownstone That's Pink Inside
Artist Vivian Reiss's Murray Hill house of whimsy.
These Jeans Made Me Gay
The Citizens of Humanity Horseshoe pants complete my queer style.
Manic, STONED, Throttle, No Brakes
Less than six months after her Gagosian sölu show, the artist JAMIAN JULIANO-VILLAND lost her gallery and all her money and was preparing for an exhibition with two the biggest living American artists.
WHO EVER THOUGHT THAT BRIGHT PINK MEAT THAT LASTS FOR WEEKS WAS A GOOD IDEA?
Deli Meat Is Rotten