A beloved New York City doctor who put his retirement on hold to help the battle of COVID-19 ended up dying after contracting the virus.
“He saw another human being in need, and he didn’t hesitate to help.”
After nearly 40 years as a physician, Dr. James Mahoney could have retired. Instead, he went to extraordinary lengths to help coronavirus patients. https://t.co/P9q5VQ0yZJ
— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 18, 2020
According to The New York Times; Dr. James Mahoney worked at The University Hospital Of Brooklyn and The Kings County Hospital Center. He was 62-years-old.
Dr. Mahoney delayed his retirement to help save lives in the battle against the coronavirus. After he contracted the virus, he continued to check in with his colleagues on the frontlines to make sure they were doing well.
“As a young black man, I looked at this guy and said to myself, ‘Twenty years from now I want to be like him,’” Latif A. Salam said, one of Dr. Mahoney’s former students. “When a black medical student, a black resident sees him, he sees a hero. Someone you can be that one day…He’s our Jay-Z.”
Mahoney’s sister, Saundra Chisolm, added the following in an interview with The Guardian:
“He told that to a lot of his residents who were people of color: you’re just as smart of everyone else.”
Read more and see more pictured of Dr. James Mahoney here!
[VIDEO] Dedicated Grocery Clerk Dies Of Coronavirus, Last Paycheck Was $20.64
Who’s protecting essential workers?: 27-year-old grocery store clerk died from coronavirus
Twenty-seven-year-old Leilani Jordan told her mom she wanted to keep going to work to help the seniors in her community. Then she became sick and died.
Jordan worked at Giant Foods in Maryland. The store said Jordan’s last day at work was March 16 but that they weren’t aware she was ill until March 28.
Now her mother, Zenobia Shepherd, is in mourning.
“She was my butterfly,” said her mother. “I know she’s in heaven and she’s there welcoming everybody.”
Shepherd told WUSA that her daughter, Jordan, had cerebral palsy and loved working at Giant Foods.
“‘Mommy, I’m going to go to work. I’m going to still go to work. I want to help,'” Shepherd recalled her saying, WUSA reports.
From Shepherd’s recollection, her daughter got very sick before she finally got her to Walter Reed Medical Center for help.
“When she got out of the car, she fell. She collapsed in the parking lot,” Shepherd told WUSA. “When they got her, she had a 104-degree fever. They put her in isolation. She called me and said, ‘Mommy, I can barely breathe.'”
More heartbreaking? The 27-year-old’s last paycheck was $20.64.
Her mother cried over, recalling how her daughter didn’t have the proper gear to help protect her from the virus.
“For $20.64 they could’ve bought a box of gloves to give them. They could’ve kept that paycheck. She did this from her heart, not for the money,” said Shepherd.
If you’re reading this and wondering how a paycheck could be as low as $20.64—allow me to introduce you to the loophole in federal wage & hour law that allows employers to pay disabled workers like Leilani Jordan pennies an hour for their labor. https://t.co/kjYmAVDHfb
— Rebecca Vallas (@rebeccavallas) April 14, 2020
During an interview for MSNBC, Giant Foods officials said that, during the time, the CDC did not recommend masks and so they did not provide them for the stores.
Shepherd told MSNBC that officials from Giant Foods weren’t doing enough to protect their employees.
“Leadership is not going out of their way to protect the vulnerable class like the seniors who shop there… and the people with disabilities who worked there,” she said.