This young ER doctor had to tell Covid-19 patients when it was time to say goodbye

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This young ER doctor had to tell Covid-19 patients when it was time to say goodbye to their families. Then the virus knocked him down

Grand Rapids, Michigan (CNN)When coronavirus first hit in March, Dr. David Burkard found himself having some of the toughest conversations of his life.

He had to let patients know when it was time to say their final goodbyes to their families.

"The hard thing is having to be the person that talks to the patient with Covid, who says, 'You know what? It's time to call your wife. We are going to have to put a breathing tube down and it's time for you to say goodbye,'" Burkard said.

It was a message the emergency room physician had to deliver again and again as the pandemic stretched through summer and into the shorter days of fall.

Burkard, 28 and in his third year of residency at Spectrum Health Systems in Grand Rapids, Michigan, did what he needed to do to keep himself safe. He wore protective equipment at work, a mask on his own time and kept socially distant, he says.

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