Dr. Cleavon Gilman works at Yuma Regional Medical Center and said he was told on Nov. 22 no hospital in the state was accepting transfer ICU patients./Photo courtesy Dr. Cleavon Gilman
By Jamie Landers | Arizona Republic
Dr. Cleavon Gilman, a well-known emergency-medicine physician, has been asked not to return to his work at Yuma Regional Medical Center for his social media posts about the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic in Arizona, according to him and his staffing agency.
“What I don’t understand about this is I have been advocating for Arizona; I have been calling for a mask mandate, the closure of schools and indoor dining,” Gilman told The Arizona Republic. “I did all of this because we are seeing an unprecedented number of cases. This is my third surge — I know how this ends.”
The hospital said in a statement late Thursday night that “there has been a misunderstanding” and Gilman is scheduled to work this weekend. “News to me,” Gilman tweeted.
Gilman, who in June moved his fiancé and two kids from New York to work in Yuma near the U.S.-Mexico border and “serve the small community during the pandemic,” has not been to work since Nov. 23.
It started on Nov. 22 when Gilman tweeted “Just got to work and was notified there are no more ICU beds in the state of Arizona.”
“What happened to the 175 beds??? We likely don’t have nursing to staff them,” he added. The Arizona Department of Health Services at the time reported that 90% of ICU beds were in use.
His tweet received more than 81,000 likes and 30,000 retweets. Gilman said he finished his shift that day “without a problem.”
