Alex Gong

Alex Gong, MD, graduated from the Keck School in 2018. He’s now a third-year internal medicine resident at LAC+USC Medical Center. He published a post on Medium recently about a harrowing New Year’s Eve dealing with the COVID-19 holiday surge in Los Angeles. 

 

Gong recounts the ordeal of a patient he calls Mr. A, and Gong’s attempts to help him:

My Spanish has never been the best, but I have grown more comfortable in my three years working at the County hospital where the majority of patients are Spanish-speaking. He nods deliberately. “Am I getting better?” he asks. I must have mispronounced the word “worse” in my attempts at Spanish. I shake my head with disappointment. “I’m really sorry that this is happening,” I look him straight in the eye. Our gazes lock, and the oxygen machines continue their humming.