Vladimir Volokh, DO, a full-time physician at Mount Sinai Doctors-Urgent Care and a lieutenant commander in the US Navy, volunteered on short notice for active-duty training to support the Navy’s COVID-19 response.
On March 21, he was urgently mobilized to the USNS Comfort due to deployment of the president-directed Operation COVID-19. The USNS Comfort team activated in five days to respond to the greatest global pandemic of the 21st century and was sent to NYC to provide high quality medical care.
Dr. Volokh served as a family physician and Senior Medical Officer during Operation COVID-19, at sick-bay call providing expert humanitarian relief health care. His responsibilities included sick call coverage and providing on-demand outpatient health care to 1,200 active duty and Military Sealift Command aboard the USNS Comfort. On board in New York, Dr. Volokh evaluated and diagnosed the first COVID-19 case in a member of the crew, isolating him and containing the spread of the infection. Throughout his tenure, only three crew members needed hospital admission for COVID 19; 30 crew members had to take quarantine measures.
Shortly after Dr. Volokh began work on the USNS Comfort, his father was diagnosed with COVID-19 and passed away on April 8. The commanding officers offered Dr. Volokh the possibility of leaving the ship to arrange the funeral. However, at that time, the funeral home would not allow viewing even for family members, and if he decided to take a leave, he would be restricted to quarantine on the ship or in a hotel for two weeks before being allowed to return to work.
“This would affect the care of ship’s crew, since there was a shortage of doctors at that time,” Dr. Volokh says, “I spoke with the Rabbi, who offered to perform the ceremony at the cemetery and hold a memorial when I came back.”
Then on May 1, Dr. Volokh received a call from his mother’s nursing home that she had passed away. “The support from crew members and fellow doctors aboard as well as Mount Sinai team members throughout my deployment was overwhelming,” he says.
It is a very difficult time for our country and many families have lost their loved ones. “Unfortunately, my parents were not exception, but my Dad, who spent 35 years in the military, fully supported my deployment, despite being left alone,” Dr. Volokh says. “On the day of deployment, it was sad to say goodbye to my Dad, but he told me that would do exactly the same to help my country in fight with the virus.”
When the USNS Comfort arrived back in Norfolk on May 2, Dr. Volokh was quarantined for two weeks. Because he had now lost both parents, the Navy allowed him to go back to New York to arrange the funeral for his mother and stay in quarantine at home.
Lieutenant Commander Volokh is one of the many military doctors who have been on the front line of COVID-19, balancing the needs of family while courageously fighting the pandemic. He says, “My biggest consolation was that my father would be very proud of my decision to complete my duty as a physician and soldier.”
Submitted by: Daniel Leinweber, Communications and Marketing Associate, Mount Sinai Doctors-Brooklyn Heights, Mount Sinai Doctors-Urgent Cares