The dying man’s hand rested in his own. Dr. Haney Mallemat knew the patient was nearing the end. He listened as the man’s agonized daughter cried on a video call as she said goodbye. Then Mallemat witnessed the man’s final breaths.

The COVID-19 patient was merely one of many the doctor tried to save as the coronavirus swept across New Jersey. They haunted him for months. “That’s really the most heartbreaking thing of all — seeing patients (who) are dying without their family,” said Mallemat, a critical care intensivist at Cooper University Hospital in Camden.