Brave doctor, 80, survives COVID-19, returns to helping people

I was very afraid that I would be writing an obituary, but I’m thrilled to report that Dr David Gullett, an 80-year-old physician in my hometown of Clarksville, Tennessee, survived a harrowing attack of the Covid-19 virus and has quickly returned to helping his patients.

David and his wife Paula built a house next door to my parents’ house in the early 1970s and have been great neighbors ever since. As a teenager, I was too stupid to get to know them. But I’ve been honored to talk with them many times in the last few years.

When my father died two and a half years ago, the Gulletts were a rock supporting my mother. I don’t think she would have been able to get through it without their love and support.

Dr Gullett caught the virus from a patient. He became sick on April 24 and had to be rushed to the hospital’s emergency room on May 8. Making things even worse for the family, Paula’s elderly mother died on May 9.

David downplays the terrible experience, but his daughter Leigh tells me how severe the danger was: “When I was driving him to the emergency room, I did not know if he would live through this or not. I knew Dad would not ask to go to the ER unless it was extremely serious.

“His symptoms were high fever at the beginning, chest pains, shortness of breath, having a hard time breathing, very unsteady on his feet. He wasn’t taking any liquids in. He had not been eating for several days. Extremely weak. I remember stopping at a red light and looking over at him. His eyes were just closed. You just don’t know what is about to happen. You don’t know the situation and how bad it is. You hear these horrible case studies and Dad is in the high-risk category of being 80 and it was really terrifying,” Leigh said.

The hospital found that he had blood clots throughout his body, even one on his heart. If any of them had come loose, he could have died instantly. With his usual downplaying he said: “It wasn’t a very fun experience. When I lay there with my legs full of clots that could break off and go to my lungs, it didn’t help me at all. But as the days went by, I felt like I was a little closer to pulling through.” He was finally released after six days in the hospital.

Leigh said that the scariest thing was not being allowed to see him or know what was happening. She would call the hospital and no one would get back to her. In Clarksville, as in the rest of the country, elderly patients are dying alone in nursing homes, unable to see their families.

Clarksville is having a hard time with the virus. Many businesses are closed. Schools are closed. Many people who were already having financial problems have lost their jobs or their small businesses and can’t pay their bills. About 6 percent of those tested in the county have been positive for the virus. The hospital has two whole floors devoted to coronavirus patients.

Leigh said that Dr Gullett started to prepare paperwork for his patients within an hour of returning home from the hospital, even though he was weak and still had clots in his legs. (The US medical system requires such a huge amount of paperwork from physicians that Leigh says that her parents often spend their day off work going through it.) After a few days, he returned to treating patients in his office.

Although they are very modest, I’ve heard that the Gulletts have devoted their lives to helping people in the city. At a time of life when most physicians have retired to travel the world or play golf, both David and Paula work long hours every day in his office treating patients. Very unusually, they treat many patients for free and have never once, in 52 years practicing medicine, used legal avenues to collect the unpaid debt of any patient. In addition to working full time, Dr Gullett volunteers at the “Good Samaritan” charity clinic to help those in need in Clarksville.

They are known for helping people who can’t pay their bills. For example, they paid for a new roof when a tornado damaged the house of a small business owner who had worked hard all his life but couldn’t afford homeowner’s insurance. Many of their patients are poor, so the Gulletts help them pay for electricity, or water, or dentist bills. They give away more than half their income.

To me, Dr David Gullett and his wife Paula personify what is meant by “good people”. They have devoted their lives to helping others. Like many doctors in China and other countries, he almost gave his life to help his patients. Why do they do it? Leigh said that her parents taught her: “If we did not work, we would have nothing to give.”

Paula said: “David and I both want to feel like our lives have been useful and have a purpose. We want our lives to be a ministry and a blessing to others. We just know we are exactly where we are supposed to be, doing exactly what we are supposed to be doing with our lives. Hopefully, we can be a help to people who cross our path.”