Coronavirus: Dr. Michael Gardam on facing Canada's health crises and his own

Dr. Michael Gardam is no stranger to the pressures of a public health emergency. The infectious disease specialist was on the front lines of the SARS outbreak in 2003, the H1N1 pandemic in 2009 and Canada’s response to the Ebola epidemic in 2014. But in the COVID-19 pandemic, while fighting to save lives, Gardam nearly lost his own. During a hospital shift in May, Gardam suddenly felt a pain in his chest. Gardam was having a heart attack. The blockage, in his proximal left anterior descending artery, was about a half a centimeter away from what is morbidly nicknamed the “widowmaker.” As Jeff Semple reports, that close call led to a major life decision