Local coronavirus expert interviewed on '60 Minutes'

Posted 6/1/20

Dr. David L. Reich, an anesthesiologist who has been president and chief operating officer of Mount Sinai Hospital since October of 2013, is a Central High graduate and Oak Lane native. He was …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Local coronavirus expert interviewed on '60 Minutes'

Posted
Dr. David L. Reich, an anesthesiologist who has been president and chief operating officer of Mount Sinai Hospital since October of 2013, is a Central High graduate and Oak Lane native. He was interviewed by correspondent Scott Pelley for a “60 Minutes” piece about the pandemic on April 19.

by Len Lear

If you watched “60 Minutes,” the top-rated CBS-TV Sunday night news magazine that been on the air for 52 years, on April 19, than you saw the piece they did about the thousands of coronavirus deaths in New York City. One of the experts interviewed by correspondent Scott Pelley for the story was Dr. David L. Reich, an anesthesiologist who has been president and chief operating officer of Mount Sinai Hospital since October of 2013.

According to the segment, Mount Sinai Hospital is taking part in a national convalescent plasma therapy program. They are hoping to line up thousands of people who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate blood plasma, which is teeming with antibodies, and which doctors hope can reduce the severity of the illness for people who are just becoming sick. It’s too soon, though, to talk now about results.

It was not mentioned in the segment, but Dr. Reich, 60, grew up in East Oak Lane and was in the 236th graduating class of Central High School in 1977. “We have many people in the hospital who are on ventilators, and although we may be past the peak here, it’s a long and slow climb down from that peak, and many patients are still sick and dying,” Dr. Reich said in another recent interview with the Central High School alumni newsletter. “I work at an amazing institution where people have risen to the occasion and continue to rethink how we do things.”

On “60 Minutes,” Dr. Reich said, “Plasma therapy has been shown to be effective in some epidemics but not in others. For example, it was effective during the SARS epidemic (severe acute respiratory syndrome, caused by a type of virus called a betacoronavirus, which occurred from 2002 to 2004) but not in the treatment of Ebola. (The name was derived from the Ebola River, which is in close proximity to the area in the Democratic Republic of Congo where the Ebola outbreak, also spread by a virus, occurred from 2013 to 2016.) For the plasma therapy, we select patients who have been in the hospital for four days and are taking a turn for the worst.”

Dr. Reich received his B.S. degree from Penn State in 1980 and his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in 1982, becoming a medical doctor at just 22 years of age. He has published over 35 book chapters, 30 “invited” articles or editorials and over 130 peer-reviewed articles in medical and scientific journals. He is associate editor of “Kaplan’s Cardiac Anesthesia” and was formerly editor-in-chief of “Seminars in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia: The Journal of Perioperative Medicine.” He is also one of the course directors of The Law and Business of Medicine for the Mt. Sinai Medical School.

Dr. Reich's parents, who now live in Elkins Park, are Mary Lou Reich, a schoolteacher, and Pace Reich, an attorney who is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and whose practice focuses on bankruptcy, corporate law and commercial litigation. Dr. Reich has two siblings who are also attorneys.

Dr. Reich still speaks fondly of his high school days at Central, which was founded in 1838 in Center City, is now in West Oak Lane and has countless graduates in Northwest Philadelphia. “There was a universal quality to Central High’s teachers,” he said. “It was more than just test-taking and giving answers in class. They sought to grow our minds and challenged us to think. Central is unique in that it’s rare to find that degree of support and education in the public education system.”

On Nov. 24, 2002, The New York Times reported on the commitment ceremony of Dr. Reich to Keith Loren Marran, stating that "Keith Loren Marran Jr. and Dr. David Louis Reich are to celebrate their partnership today with a commitment ceremony at the Bloom Ballroom in Manhattan.”

Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com

news