Trauma surgeon aids New York City COVID-19 patients

The patients he treated in a New York City hospital's intensive care unit were all "incredibly sick," said UCI Health trauma surgeon Sebastian Schubl. “They were in full-body shut down, with multiple organ failure.”

IN THE NEWS: When New York City's hospitals were overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients this spring, UCI Health trauma surgeon Dr. Sebastian Schubl answered his mentor's call for help.

Schubl treated many patients during his week of 12-hour shifts in the intensive care unit at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

It was a profound experience fighting a contagion that can cause a person's entire body to shut down.

The sheer volume of sick people meant there was little time to celebrate when one patient improved enough to be transferred to a regular hospital room, he said.

Schubl recounts his experience with love, death and war to the Orange County Register ›