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After COVID-19, cops and medics go back to work
Thousands of first responders have contracted the coronavirus and returned to the front lines. They do it out of a sense of duty to their colleagues and communities. (Reported by The Associated Press)
NEW YORK (AP) - Paramedic Alex Tull of the New York Fire Department feels out of breath after walking up a few flights of stairs and has a cough that just won't quit. After some recent chest pains, an X-ray showed lingering inflammation in his lungs.
As he goes about his days treating coronavirus patients in the Bronx, he thinks about his own battle with the disease and his rush to return to duty late last month before he was fully healed.
At the height, about a quarter of the city's 4,300 EMS workers were out sick. Nearly 700 fire department employees have tested positive for the coronavirus and eight have died, including three EMS workers.
FDNY paramedic Alex Tull, who recently recovered from COVID-19, outside EMS station 26, the "Tinhouse," in the Bronx, N.Y., April 23, 2020. (AP/John Minchillo)
Tull, 38, says he felt guilty convalescing at home for two weeks, flipping through Netflix and Hulu between naps as his colleagues risked their lives. He wondered: "Why did this have to happen to me? I want to be out there. I want to get out there and help."
But it wasn't just a matter of loyalty for the 10-year fire department veteran. A policy put in place as the virus ravaged the ranks mandated that personnel who no longer showed symptoms return to work as soon as possible.
"I definitely went back to work earlier than maybe I should have," Tull said.
FDNY paramedic Alex Tull looks out from inside his ambulance in the Bronx, N.Y., April 23, 2020. (AP/John Minchillo)
Without definitive proof that he's immune from spreading or contracting the disease, Tull fears his nagging cough might infect his partner or their patients. And with little more than a face mask and gloves for protection, he worries he'll come down with the virus again.
"Is my body ready for round two? I don't know. It is scary," Tull said.
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