These four men didn’t know each other. COVID made them ‘brothers for life.’

Stamford Advocate
By Jordan Fenster
June 5, 2022Updated: June 5, 2022 9:02 p.m.

There is a photo of Victor Gara leaving the hospital on April 24, 2020. Gara was Gaylord Hospital’s first-ever COVID patient to be discharged.

In the background of the photo, sitting in a wheelchair, wearing a face mask and a pink shirt, is Jay Bialkowski. Though Bialkowski was the hospital’s second-ever COVID patient discharged, the two did not know each other at the time.