'Anybody who says they're not scared during this is lying to you.'
On April 22, 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, I rode along with the paramedics of St. Joseph's Medical Center in Paterson, N.J., for CNN.
I tagged along with Alex Storzillo and Jim Incorvaia, childhood friends and paramedic partners, as they saved lives on the streets of Paterson.
The full article, with my words and video, can be found
here.
Paterson, a city of 146,000 people some 20 miles northwest of New York City, is statistically positioned to be hard hit by the pandemic.
Pitted against a disease that disproportionately affects both communities of color and those below the poverty line, the health care workers of Paterson have their work cut out for them. As of the last U.S. Census, 26% of Paterson's population identified as black or African American, and 60% identified as Hispanic or Latino. Twenty-eight percent of the population reported being below the poverty line.
"You see stuff here that you don't see anywhere else," Storzillo told me. "People dying from asthma, severe, severe asthmatics, and it puts this population at an incredibly higher risk for Covid-19."
In between calls, Incorvaia and Storzillo pose to show off their matching tattoos: "Veritas" and "Aequitas" -- Latin for "truth" and "justice" -- a reference to the 1999 cult film "The Boondock Saints."
"Welcome Armegeddon:" Jim Incorvaia decontaminates the leads of a heart monitor before stowing the device after a call.
Jim Incorvaia gowns up after arriving on-scene for a call.
Paterson, N.J., in the time of Covid-19
Jim Incorvaia opens a bottle of supplemental oxygen for an intubated patient.
Jim Incorvaia adjusts his protective gear before responding to a call--the pair assumes each case to be a possible Covid-19 call.
