Catching Up With One of the First Covid Patients to Be Put on a Ventilator

When he was admitted to the hospital, David Lat was one of a dozen New Yorkers there with Covid. When he finally left, the city was on lockdown. He’s made some changes since then.

David Lat, a writer and lawyer, was one of the first New Yorkers to grow critically ill with Covid-19 in March 2020. He was in the hospital for 17 days, including six days on a ventilator. “I was one of 12 people they admitted,” said Mr. Lat, now 46. “By the time I left, there were seven or eight floors of people sick with Covid.” Mr. Lat’s struggle gripped much of the city, as he and his loved ones updated his condition on Twitter in the early days of the coronavirus, when knowledge was scant but panic was widespread.