PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Xaverian Brothers senior Julian Miller planned to give back as part of the school’s Christian Senior Service project at My Brother’s Keeper in Easton, Mass. before COVID-19 led to the effort being canceled.
After a short stint of online mentoring, his father, Gregg, a radiologist, had a new idea. Dr. Miller was about to volunteer for Boston Hope, a field hospital being built in the city’s exposition center for COVID-19 patients.
“I didn’t think I was doing enough,” Julian Miller said, referencing the online service project.
After getting the needed approval from health leaders, and his mother, Julian began making beds for incoming COVID patients, eventually assembling 200 of them in the 1,000-bed temporary hospital, he told Boston 25 News.
Since the hospital opened in early April, Julian has moved to personal protective equipment, away from patients, working shifts that run 12 hours per day.
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“Helping stock supplies, helping keep organization, helping move supplies,” he said.
At no point, his father says, did Julian come in direct contact with patients.
The Millers stress that they are one small part of what has been a massive community effort with leading health officials, hospitals, volunteer clinicians and military personnel all pulling together to help attend to hundreds of patients in unprecedented times.
“The fact the community can come together like this in such a huge way to help people in need is mind-blowing and eye-opening,” said Julian Miller.
His father added that nurses are the true front-line heroes in the fight against the deadly coronavirus.
“The nurses, in particular, are doing yeomen’s work, really back-breaking non-stop work to ensure patient safety,” Dr. Miller said.