COVID-19 Survivor Thanks 116 Doctors, Nurses Who Saved His Life

Jeff Gerson was admitted to NYU Langone Tisch Hospital in mid-March with a high fever and a cough. The next day, doctors put him on a ventilator.

When he woke up from his treatment, he had no memory of being intubated. He wanted to thank the more than 134 hospital workers who attended to him when he was sick with COVID-19.

But that proved to be a monumental task. Doctors and nurses’ names and contact information weren’t readily available to him.

“I felt the need to say thank you for the heroic treatment, and yet the circumstances were denying me that,” Gerson says. “Every morning I would cry in gratitude and wonder, ‘Why did I survive?’ And so part of my … emotional recovery was to say thank you.”

To track down the people who saved his life, Gerson began with the MyChart app, which displayed the names of the doctors who ordered the more than 750 blood tests, electrocardiograms and X-Rays he underwent. The app was “a saving grace,” he says.

He also looked to his insurance company’s explanation of benefits, which provided the first initials and last names of all the doctors who billed for his treatment.

Doctors told Gerson to express his gratitude via the hospital’s feedback hotline. When he called, the person who picked up said they were writing his comments down to post on the walls of the hospital.

But Gerson wanted to thank each and every person who had been involved in his care, so he wrote a long letter. In the letter, he details the lengths he went to identify the doctors and nurses who saved his life. He describes the full and complete recovery he has made from COVID-19 and thanks them for their efforts.

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