The McCourty's "Double Coverage" podcast is looking a little different these days. With social distancing, Devin and Jason are communicating just like the rest of us: on video chat.
With Sunday night "wine down" episodes, the brothers chat with each other and have fans join the call to ask questions, and on the latest episode, they had a special guest join the show.
Myron Rolle played in the NFL from 2010 to 2013, and now his next chapter in retirement is saving lives.
Rolle, a former Rhodes Scholar, is now a neurosurgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, and he is on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Though, in typical times, Rolle spends most of his day in the operating room, he said at MGH, everyone is jumping in where they are needed. Rolle painted a picture of what is happening in the hospital.
"The whole hospital here at Mass General is completely different. It's transformed. It's bare. The hallways are pretty much empty. No visitors allowed any more. Our elective surgeries are either canceled or postponed. We're trying to keep bed space for all these patients who are coming in with potential COVID-19," Rolle said. "Everyone's got to wear a mask. Hand sanitizer everywhere. Now, they're repurposing the different specialties, like neurosurgery for instance. We're going to be helping out in a medical capacity because it's sort of all hands on deck."
Rolle said he is now working in a surge clinic and seeing the harsh realities of the pandemic up close, and he did his best to explain the severity of it, hoping that by seeing this disease as more than a number, it will sink in.
"If I were to take everyone and put them here in this hospital and have them walk around the emergency department and seeing people be emergency intubated because their oxygen saturation rates are going low. They're breathing fast and they can't get oxygen in. They have to have these end of life and goals of care discussions, it wouldn't be sort of a number anymore. It wouldn't be just a figure. It becomes real," he said. "It puts a face to it. These families are having these end of life discussions. It's serious. I'd say for everyone watching, do your part. Lifestyle behavior modification. Hygiene. Social distancing. Stay at home. Protect yourself. Protect your family. Give us time as epidemiologists, scientists, nurses, doctors, pharmacists, PhDs, give us the time to figure out a way to mitigate this disease because I feel like we will but if we don't have the time and our resources are strained and stressed, then it makes it harder and more challenging."
Rolle played three seasons in the NFL for the Titans and the Steelers, but he knew all along that he would eventually want to become a neurosurgeon. Now, he is living out his dream, but in the midst of the COVID-19, Rolle's work looks different, but he said he is grateful to be able to help.
You can listen to the McCourty's conversation with Rolle in full, as well as questions they took from fans, in the video below.
