They traded in their Fordham baseball and softball gloves for exam gloves. They took off their Fordham football helmets and donned protective masks. Instead of passing the ball, they hand out assists of a different nature. They run to danger instead of a finish line. They used to clear the way for running back, now they clear the way for emergency vehicles. They come from different sports but the one thing the former Fordham student-athletes have in common is that they are on the front lines of the COVID-19 outbreak. Doctors, nurses, policemen, EMT, firefighters, grocery store workers, they all are there when called upon, living out the Jesuit ideal of men and women for others.
 
Today we recognize former track and field/cross country Ram Dr. Joe Hartnett, FCRH '14, a first year urology resident at Stony Brook Hospital.
 
Hartnett graduated from SUNY Upstate medical school last year and started at Stony Brook last July. Little did he know what was ahead for him as a first year resident.
 
"The pandemic first started really affecting us at Stony Brook in March when it quickly started to fill up the hospital," said Hartnett. "Essentially all normal resident training was halted and many of us were redeployed from our regular rotations to help cover units with COVID patients. The number of new admissions and ICU upgrades over the next month was really staggering. Luckily, our hospital had just expanded with an additional building and had the benefit of having some extra space for the massive influx of patients."
 

"It was a stressful time but the entire hospital staff really came together well in the crisis. I was deployed to both general medical and ICU floors over the last few months and learned a lot during that time."
 
The hospital had different programs to help the staff deal with the stress. One of those is a weekly happy hour Zoom call organized by one of the chief residents.  One of the calls was crashed by former New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez, who offered the group a few words of encouragement.
 
Hartnett called upon the lessons he learned at Fordham with helping him through these difficult times.
 
"My Fordham experience taught me value of teamwork and camaraderie," he said. "The crisis forced many different sub-specialties of healthcare workers to now work side-by-side. Often residents' schedules were changed or adjusted due to need somewhere else in the hospital. I think being on the track and field team at Fordham helped prepare me for the necessary teamwork mentality needed in the crisis."
 
Teamwork also played a big part in Hartnett's reaction to the pandemic. "My biggest takeaway is that humans truly have the ability to come together when needed. This was an unprecedented crisis that was handled as well as could be expected at Stony Brook and that only was possible due to everyone being willing to take part in what needed to be done. That was really heartening to see in the midst of the terrible disease we were dealing with."
 
Hartnett was a member of the Fordham track and field and cross country teams from 2010-2014.