BALTIMORE (AP) - The chief doctor of a Baltimore hospital’s critical care unit has died after contracting the coronavirus.
Joseph Costa, who worked at Mercy Medical Center, died Saturday, news outlets reported. He was 56.
“He dedicated his life and career to caring for the sickest patients,” the hospital said in a statement on Facebook. “And when the global pandemic came down upon us, Joe selflessly continued his work on the front lines.”
Kevin Parks, one of Costa’s patients, told WBAL-TV the doctor was filled with compassion. “He was never high, never low,” Parks said. “He was steady. He always smiled, always had your back.”
Costa joined the hospital in 1997 and became the chief of the critical care unit in 2005.
“He knew how to take good care of himself, and he still passed away from this disease,” Amy Zimmerman, a doctor who graduated with Costa from medical school, told the news outlet. “This could happen to anybody.”
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