Dr. Robert Montgomery had several reasons for getting a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as he could.
As a transplant surgeon at a busy New York hospital, his patients were among the most vulnerable to the disease.
The pandemic has exacted a terrible toll on transplant recipients. About 20% of those infected died – almost 2,000 in New York City alone last year compared to just one or two transplant patient deaths in a typical flu season, Montgomery said.
He also is a transplant patient himself. The heart beating inside his 61-year-old chest is not the one he was born with.
