Gay Critical Care Doc Dies Of COVID In His Own ICU

The Huffington Post reports:

The “beloved” chief of critical care at a Baltimore hospital died Saturday of COVID-19 after caring for the facility’s “sickest patients” during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the facility. Dr. Joseph Costa, 56 — who a colleague likened to “an older brother that [staff] admired and revered” — was the intensive care unit chief at Mercy Medical Center. The hospital, confirming his death, posted about him on Facebook Sunday.

Costa worked for Mercy for 23 years and became the chief of critical care in 2005. He is survived by his husband, David Hart. The couple had been together for 28 years. “I keep thinking, ‘Now there is one less ICU doctor to care for pandemic patients in Baltimore,’” Hart told The Baltimore Sun. Hart added that Costa’s colleagues held a vigil for him as he lay dying, and that he held his husband in his arms until he passed away early Saturday morning.