A Hawaiʻi-based physician and University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa John A. Burns School of Medicine graduate admitted one of the first patients in the state suspected of contracting the COVID-19 infection. Royce Shimamoto is an internist at an Oʻahu hospital and has been in practice for 16 years. He is one of our state’s frontline heroes and has been helping fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I and everyone involved in this patient’s care realized how vulnerable we were to getting exposed,” said Shimamoto. “We experienced first-hand the effect of having limited access to personal protective equipment. We all understood very quickly that our own safety was equally important as the patient’s immediate need for medical care.”
He added, “More than ever before, it is very clear that our decisions to serve as physicians are founded on empathy and duty, which is what will sustain us through these incredibly uncertain times.”
Read the full interview with Shimamoto on the JABSOM website.
