WASHINGTON – Two Utah doctors who responded to call of duty as members of the Navy Reserves during the pandemic look back on a year of COVID-19 in the United States.
Doctors in Utah answer the Navy call
Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, honored Ogden Dr. Michael Hall on the floor of the house for his service during the COVID-19 pandemic on the floor of the US House of Representatives a little over a week ago.
Shortly after his commissioning in the Navy Reserves at the age of 48, he posted to NYC and used his medical background to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. Michael Hall embodies Ogden’s spirit of giving, and we thank him for his service. #utpol
– Rep. Blake Moore (@RepBlakeMoore) March 1, 2021
Hall joined the Navy Reserves in September 2019, finding that his services were required even before he completed his training. The lieutenant went to New York City in April 2020 to care for patients with COVID-19.
“‘OK, well, I’m an orthopedist,'” he recalls.
Dr. Michael Hall, a first lieutenant in the Navy Reserves, spent about six weeks in New York City helping with medical care because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo provided by Dr. Hall.
He and a group of other surgeons were taking care of ventilated ICU patients for the first time in 18 or 19 years.
“So we all, you know, just jumped in and did it,” Hall said.
Eventually Hall spent six weeks in New York, away from his family and practice in Ogden.
“I need the horsepower”
Hall was one of two doctors in Utah wearing a Navy tie to answer his country’s call.
Around the same time, Dr. Mark Moritz, Rear Admiral in the Navy Reserves and doctor at St. Mark’s Hospital, received a call from the Surgeon General of the Navy.
“And he says, ‘Mark, how is your practice? How’s Utah? «Moritz remembered. He said, ‘If you are COVID for your community, I don’t want to drag you. But if as a podiatrist you are not necessarily COVID, I could definitely use you. And I was like, ‘A podiatrist in COVID? How will it work? ‘And he says, “I need you as an admiral – I need the horsepower.”
A monumental task
Dr. Mark Moritz, a Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy Reserves, served as the task force commander on COVID-19 testing for the U.S. Navy at the height of the pandemic to help keep seafarers safe on ships around the world. Photo provided by Dr. Moritz.
The next thing he knew, Moritz was working with the CDC and the Department of Defense as the commander of the task force responsible for COVID testing for the entire U.S. Navy.
Their main task: the safety of seafarers on ships around the world.
“We had to find out very quickly how to treat, isolate, test and make these seafarers safe on board ships – and make our national security as worried as possible during a pandemic,” he said.
Moritz stayed in Washington for several months.
“Who would have ever thought that the pandemic, the pointy end of the spear, would be the Navy’s medicine in our next war, and all of us line officers have spent our careers looking for the question, ‘How do we get on to war react? ‘ ” he said.
Utah Navy Doctors: Anyone Can Serve
Hall says he will never forget the warm welcome he and the other doctors received from the people of New York City.
“They leaned out of their buildings and banged pots and pans and said, ‘Thank you. ‘For us that moment was kind of a confirmation of – OK, at least we showed up,’ said Hall. “And they were grateful for us.”
Hall says everyone and everyone can and should serve their communities as best they can.
“Do something,” he advised. “Anyone can do something, and it doesn’t have to be something big and something that shows up in a newspaper. There should be something small every day that we – we can – we just make it a part of our lives and that becomes our legacy to our families and to the people around us. And then maybe the world will change in that little way, you know ”
A year after the pandemic began, Moritz saw signs of hope.
“We’ve been through things like this. They may not have been a pandemic, more epidemic in nature, but we eradicated polio from the US because we took our medicine. If we can wait long enough to take our medicine and get through, a brighter day will come, ”said Moritz. “I think we could ease the restrictions and it is up to all heads of state and health departments to decide when to open. But I can already see that – this light is coming at the end of the tunnel. ”
Comments are closed.