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SOUTHAMPTON, PA — On March 15, Dr. Marc Rabinowitz was online, posting videos that shared tips about fighting the spread of the new coronavirus.
In the days that followed, the Southampton resident and physician at Prevention First Healthcare would fight a more personal battle with the virus after contracting it himself.
“We’d taken every precaution … ,” Rabinowitz said Monday from his home. “They think I just got it in the community, by going to a gas station or supermarket or somewhere. Even with social distancing, I just got unlucky.”
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Rabinowitz said his symptoms were unusual. Food started tasting unusually salty, and then he started having body aches and pain in his chest. By the time he started running 103-degree fevers and his oxygen levels — which, as a physician, he was able to test — began dipping dangerously low, he knew it was time to go to the hospital.
He was ultimately diagnosed with COVID-19 and pneumonia in both lungs.
At Holy Redeemer Hospital in Southampton, where he would spend four days, he admits that the transition from doctor to patient was a hard one.
“It’s scary,” he said. “My room was right outside the ICU, and I knew it was there for a reason. You know what can potentially go wrong.”
Like ‘Their Own Brother Or Sister’
Rabinowitz was quick to give credit for his recovery to the staff at Holy Redeemer.
“It’s strange, because I’m a caregiver. I’ve been doing this for 30-some years. It’s my life’s calling, and now you’re dependent on all the doctors and nurses and aides (yourself),” he said. “If I was their own brother or sister or family member, they couldn’t have treated me with more care, love, expertise … .”
He recalled one nurse spending an entire night with him when he was struggling with high fever.
Also important to his recovery, he said, was the support he got from others.
Friends and colleagues called and messaged. Neighbors delivered food to his family’s home. Co-workers from the preschool where his wife, Beth, works came and lit luminaries in the family’s yard.
“The cards, the letters the calls — it is so uplifting,” Rabinowitz said. “That endorphin rush, that serotonin — which are chemicals that make you feel better — rise because of the kindness of others.”
‘Message Of Hope’
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Something else was making Rabinowitz feel better Monday. For the first time since falling ill, he was seeing patients via videoconference from his home, working once again to heal others.
As both a doctor and patient with the coronavirus, he had advice to offer.
He urged everyone in the community to be aware of what they can do to help each other right now, from those sick with the virus to the elderly and isolated who may need food, comfort or other assistance during the coronavirus shutdown.
He urged anyone who doesn’t feel well at this time to advocate for themselves and not be afraid to visit a doctor or hospital.
“The same way I knew, even though I didn’t fit the criteria for getting tested immediately, that something was wrong … I think people know their bodies well and you need to pay attention to it,” he said. “This is war. This is everywhere. Just because you’re not the textbook of what symptoms are doesn’t mean you couldn’t have it.”
And, for those who contract the coronavirus, he wants his story to be one of hope.
“People recover,” he said. “There’s not only bad news. People are recovering from this.
“I want people to look and say, ‘This doctor survived. This doctor is going to beat coronavirus.’ I think that’s a very important message of hope for everybody out there.”
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