While many general practitioners shut their doors in early 2020 amid spreading lockdowns, leaving those with COVID-19 to seek treatments at emergency rooms, Dr. David Brownstein, a family physician, and medical director of the Center for Holistic Medicine in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and his colleagues, remained steadfast in their commitment and oath as doctors—to keep their doors open and do what they did best—treat sick patients.
“I said to my staff, patients are going to be scared and if they get sick, they’re going to need a place to go—we’re going to be there for them and help them out,” said Dr. Brownstein in a recent interview on Discovering True Health.
“We’ve been treating viral infections and other flu-like infections using a holistic approach for close to 30 years, and we’re pretty damn good at what we do,” he noted.
Early Days of the Pandemic
It was the beginning of March when COVID-19 hit Michigan. Intent on protecting his staff and their healthy patients, Dr. Brownstein and his team bundled up and set up an outdoor COVID-19 treatment assembly line—despite snow on the ground and temperatures frequently below 30 degrees. IVs hanging from standing poles flapped in the frigid wind as Dr. Brownstein and his staff treated patients in their cars.
As the weeks went by Dr. Brownstein recounts, “There were some days when cars were 10 deep in the parking lot and we were working until nine or ten at night using flashlights on our phones to see the veins for IVs.”
