At 63 years old, Richard Whelan, MD, is a highly active New Yorker. One of his favorite activities is walking or biking for miles each day in Manhattan, where he’s lived, practiced medicine and raised his family for more than 30 years.

Dr. Whelan also enjoys keeping up with his daughter, Olivia, 33. The tight-knit duo often go to museums and explore the city together, and they enjoy traveling—from upstate hikes to their annual daddy-daughter trip. But for now, all their 2020 plans are on hold due to COVID-19—and the unexpected impact it made on Dr. Whelan.

The accomplished surgeon, who joined Northwell Health in 2019 as chief of colorectal surgery, was diagnosed with COVID-19. The weekend prior, he played tennis with friends—another cherished ritual—and felt good about heading into a new work week.

“I thought I was fine, but over a day and a half I started to feel crummy,” he said. His only symptom was a minor, infrequent cough. “Then I woke up the next day and, within six hours, I went from not so great to completely fatigued,” Dr. Whelan recalled. “I mean, it was amazingly quick.”

A 102 degree fever prompted a trip to Lenox Hill Hospital’s emergency department, where Dr. Whelan was examined and released shortly after to recover at home.

Dr. Whelan was unable to do much for himself during his two weeks of isolating at home, sometimes sleeping for 15 to 18 hours a day. Fortunately, he had his wife, Diana, to care for him.

“It was a comfort to know she was in the apartment, even if we had to limit our contact,” he said.

When Dr. Whelan had fully recovered after a couple of weeks, he was ready to return to work at Lenox Hill Hospital. But even prior to being diagnosed, elective surgeries had been canceled and his work had slowed—so he asked to be redeployed on one of the many COVID-19 units that had popped up in his absence.

“I needed to be helping, to do something,” Dr. Whelan recounted. “I could not sit in my office and wait for phone calls that are not going to come, when there are people working so hard and I can do something to help.”

The doctors, physician assistants and nurses running the COVID-19 unit had come together to help from other areas of the hospital, spanning multiple specialties and experience levels.

“It’s a whole new thing for a 63-year-old colorectal doctor to go back to general medicine,” he said. “I’m glad to be doing it.”

Dr. Whelan’s teacher on the unit was a hospitalist named Fatima Chaudhri, MD. Like him, she was also new to Lenox Hill Hospital. “He’s been so eager to learn about the medicine aspect of it,” Dr. Chaudhri said. “And having someone come in with a surgical background has been really enlightening.”

Drawing on his own experience battling the virus, Dr. Whelan has tried to motivate his patients to want to get up and get out of the hospital. “You try to lift their spirits, but sometimes they're so tired they can’t even communicate well,” he said. “It’s a milestone to get them out of the hospital, and it takes a lot of courage on their part.”

Even though he feels 100% better, Dr. Whelan still tries to reduce exposing his family, wearing gloves and a mask at home. “My daughter is worried about getting exposed to it,” he noted. Out of an abundance of caution, it’s been six weeks since the two have seen one another.

Despite the personal sacrifices he must make in his new role, he takes comfort in knowing he can be there for others who are sick.

“You take the precautions you can take, but at the end of the day, we’re doctors and that’s why I went into this,” he said.

Back to walking 5 miles each day, a recuperated Dr. Whelan is back to exploring the city he loves, and looks forward to a post-COVID-19 New York, so his daughter can join him again.

Facts and guidelines related to coronavirus are constantly evolving. The facts contained here are Northwell’s best judgment at time of publication on April 28, 2020.