Three Physicians from the Same Family Infected with COVID-19
By Jeremiah Lowney, DO ‘94
The Lowney Family: L-R: Dr. Jay Lowney, Dr. Charles Lowney, Dr. Mike Lowney, and Irene Esdale -- Boston Globe, 21 May 2020
Jeremiah Lowney, DO is a 1994 graduate of UNE COM. When the COVID-19 pandemic became widespread in the US, his father, brother, and himself, also Osteopaths, were infected. His 82-year old father got the worst of it, and yet they were able to keep him out of the hospital with multiple treatments that included OMT.
I’m going to share a harrowing story about three physicians from the same family who were infected with COVID-19. After a very frightening, and long battle, the story ends in recovery… otherwise, I would be too heartbroken to tell it.
I’m a 54-year old male who works with my 38-year old brother and 82-year old father. We are osteopathic physicians in a primary care practice in Boston, MA. Hundreds of patients visit our office weekly. On March 24th, we all tested positive for COVID-19.
My brother was the first to feel ill in the third week of March. He stopped coming into the office. I became ill on Saturday, March 21st with fatigue and upper back pain. On Sunday, March 22nd my father developed a slight cough, nausea and low-grade fever. My father is a very active osteopathic family physician who works harder, and loves his job, more than anyone I’ve ever met. He also has multiple comorbidities that include cardiovascular disease, myocardial infarct with stent placement, atrial fibrillation, tachy-brady arrhythmia with pacemaker and recently was treated for Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and Melanoma. He is extremely high risk for a very bad outcome if exposed to COVID-19, but as a dedicated physician, he continued to work up to the point of developing a symptom.
Beginning on Monday, March 23rd, our office was closed to actual patient visits and my brother and I began telemedicine. I worked from my home computer because I was still very sick. My brother worked from his computer at our office. We managed to get through the days and on Tuesday, March 24th we tested each other with nasopharyngeal swabs for COVID-19. On Friday, March 27th we found out we all tested positive. That was also the day my father started looking very badly. His nausea worsened even while on a good treatment regimen.