An interview with Dr. Matthew Szymaszek

There are a few certainties that I can recall during Matthew Szymaszek’s four-year career as a member of the Running Red Foxes from 2003-2007: 1. I almost always misspelled his last name; in fact, I did everything in my power to avoid having to spell his last name, and it’s highly likely his last name is misspelled in archived race results; 2. I probably didn’t know how to properly pronounce his name – then and now! If I had to guess from the cobwebs of my mind … it sounds something like THIS: Sim-AH-zik. I’m embarrassed to admit this! 3. None of that mattered, or matters, because all of us – coaches, good friends, former teammates – from his Marist days now and forever refer to him simply as “CT.” There’s a not-so-clever reason for this: At the time, CT was one of the few (maybe only) members of the team from Connecticut. Yeah. I know. Real witty.

Anyway, back in the day, CT was one of the hardest working long-distance runners we had on the team, logging some of the highest mileage in training and running the longest races. So, it was no surprise to any of us that he took this monster work ethic and applied it to his non-running career in medicine. CT’s official title nowadays reads like this: Matthew Szymaszek, DO, FAAEM, Emergency medicine and critical care. His career and life path took him from Erie, PA, to Philadelphia and now to Colorado, where he is on the frontlines of the Coronavirus outbreak. 

His Facebook posts from a few weeks ago, during the early stages of the pandemic, caught my attention and led me to think of him as the next chapter in this Pandemic Papers series. The FB posts included pictures of him in personal protective gear (like the one here on the left), trying to figure out the patterns of this insidious and deadly virus, and included detailed descriptions of his thought process (see caption information below). As he says here in this interview, the Coronavirus pandemic now consumes his life – personal and professional – as it does with all of us, but most importantly of the heroic men and women in healthcare who are on the front lines of this war and this fight against time. While he admits to the all-encompassing nature of this disease, CT also doles out some sage advice on how to manage these trying times, in his answer to the last question of this interview.

Here, then, the Pandemic Papers series continues with some Quarantine Questions for Dr. Matthew Szymaszek, aka CT. We are grateful he took time out of his stressful life to get back to us on this, and we pray for his health and safety every day.

For those who do not know or remember you, a little background on your Marist history: When did you graduate, what did you major in, your running career highlights while at Marist?

I graduated from Marist in 2007 with a BS in biology and ran all three seasons during my tenure there. I was cross country captain my senior year and had multiple personal as well as team successes over my running career. I primarily ran long distance 3k-10k and my most memorable achievements were being privileged to run the 10k at the Penn Relays my senior year and winning a section of the 5k at the Gotham Cup my junior year. I was also a member of several record setting cross country teams, but those records have since been erased. Of course, those personal successes would not have been possible without the camaraderie that is formed among teammates. It was the dark, frigid, morning runs before class, quiet runs through the woods, and long runs through Poughkeepsie that are the most memorable.

What are your fondest memories of your time at Marist and on the team?

I can distinctly remember watching the Summer Olympics during preseason in Champagnat and everyone going bananas as Bekele broke the 5,000 and 10,000 world records. It was such a cool thing to experience with a bunch of other runners. There are lots of runs/workouts with the team and with individuals that I won’t forget. Like the time I was up for 30 hours studying for finals (never a good idea) and then ripped my last session of mile repeats at the Spackenkill High School track. Or the time during graduation week that I ran 10 miles with (Mike) Rolek in silence as we put the hammer down on each other. It’s those times, sometimes spent in silence, that forge lasting bonds.

What advice or message would you give to current members of the Marist Running community?

For those Foxes both at the beginning and end of your careers, being a student-athlete is not an easy task. It takes discipline, focus, and a special person to do what we do. The bonds that you form during your time at Marist are invaluable. Given the new social landscape and global crisis we now find ourselves, those friendships are more important now than ever. Stay in touch, make a point to get together, challenge each other.

Some post-collegiate running highlights -- how many marathons have you run, your best times, and do you think your running improved after college and if so why?

Since graduating, I continued to run but stepped up to the marathon. I have since run four marathons in total, Philadelphia twice (2008, 2012) and Boston twice (2014, 2015). The last three marathons were while I was in medical school. I still have a bone to pick with the marathon because my PR (2:40:00 at Philadelphia) 2012 irks me. I think the early years following Marist were my best and the most enjoyable because I could do whatever I wanted. There was no pressure or rigid structure to what I was doing, so running did not feel as much of a chore so I got more out of it physically and mentally.

When did you decide to go into medicine, and give us a timeline of how and where you did that?

I decided to go into medicine as I was nearing the end of my time at Marist. It wasn’t until my senior year that I decided to commit and since I was late in deciding, I had to take physics after graduation as it is a required course. In 2008, I took the MCAT and in 2009 started on this journey, which was an additional 10 years in the making. I attended Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) in Erie, PA, from 2009-2013 and then “matched” into my five-year residency program, which was a combined internal medicine and emergency medicine program in Philadelphia. We did a lot of critical care throughout my five years of residency and since I enjoyed it so much I decided to do an additional year of training in a critical care fellowship, which I completed in 2019. Now, I’m double board certified in emergency medicine and internal medicine and I will be taking my critical care boards in August of this year. I currently work in Colorado Springs doing critical care at a Level 1 trauma center and I also do a few shifts in the emergency department in Pueblo, Colorado, which is just south of Colorado Springs.

A brief background on your current family situation -- wife, kids, where you live and what you are currently doing.

I met my wife Lindsey in medical school while playing intramural soccer. I had never played soccer and had joined an intramural team to meet people. We happened to be on the same team and, as they say, the rest is history. We have two boys, Owen (5) and Evan (4), as well as our red fox lab, Murphy. Seriously, he is a red fox lab. It is a type of breed of Labrador, but he’s not actually red, more of a deeper yellow/brown.

OK, first pandemic question: When did you first start "paying attention" to the Covid-19 situation and how concerned were you at the outset? Did you think this would affect us here in the United States?

I’m not sure when I first really started paying attention. I was certainly following the news more closely and reading articles that were coming to my email from the organizations that I belong to. Our first case in the United States was confirmed on January 20, so I was certainly starting to pay attention after that. In all honesty, in the beginning I thought it was similar to the flu, but as more and more data was coming out and the more I talked to the guys I work with, we knew this was something different. As soon as the Washington cluster started getting bigger and reports of cruise ships were involved and how blasé our president was being initially, I knew it was going to spread.

How are you managing it so far, professionally and personally? Is it consuming your work life -- is that mostly all you are dealing with?

It’s all I think about. It’s all I read about. I was covering the ICU two weeks ago (the week of March 16) and we had the first death in Colorado at my facility just prior to my coming on service. Things were just starting to take off around here and nationally. Everyone was/is nervous. We were receiving daily and sometimes hourly updates/policy changes and we continue to receive daily updates. The messages have changed to words of encouragement as everyone is overtired, overworked, undersupplied. I’m fortunate enough to work for a system that was very aggressive and proactive. Despite the early confusion, I don’t think the system in which I work could have done better.

I’m around positive COVID patients all the time and then I have to go home to my family. It’s been very stressful for us because our main focus is our boys. I never come home in the clothes that I went to work in and I don’t see the boys until the laundry is started and I’ve showered. Even then, I’m still nervous about the potential contamination I may be bringing home. As for Lindsey, she has started doing half days in the office and half days at home doing telehealth visits, essentially medical Skype or FaceTime with her patients from our guest bedroom. We all have had to make adjustments and so far, it’s working.

As an American society and as a country, what steps should we be taking to combat this pandemic?

I think the initial red flags were there and we squandered time to prepare. I think the message that was being put out was too casual and people were confused. There were reports in other countries of throngs of people becoming sick and dying, but to think that could not or would not happen here in the States is just silly.

This is a tough one: How "bad" is this going to get and how long is this going to directly affect our lives moving forward?

Since you originally sent this to me (interview questions were emailed on March 26), things certainly have become quite grim to say the least. Unfortunately, as I said earlier, this is all I read and think about so I had been following lots of models and other experts around the globe about where this was headed and I’m not surprised we are looking at approximately 100,000 potential deaths. As far as I can tell, this is going to last for months. There is no telling how the economic fallout will last.

There are so many unknowns that it’s hard to know what will happen. Will the increased UV concentration during summer help kill it off? Can you become re-infected after you have recovered? How long are you able to shed the virus and potentially continue to infect others? Is this going to become a seasonal infection like the flu?

Things are pretty dire here in New York. Do you anticipate/forecast that this type of situation will spread to other areas of the country?

As the White House takes things more seriously as this is spreading across the country, and not just in metropolitan areas, but small towns as well, it is clear no part of the country is safe. The only way to limit the spread and flatten the curve is to continue to socially distance and isolate. If we allow people to go back to work too soon or allow large crowds to assemble, there is likely to be a second wave of infection, and this is already being seen in China and Japan as they are lifting quarantines.

Give us a timeline (your best estimate) on when a vaccine and/or medicines to help treat the virus might be available and effective?

It’s impossible to know. At least 18-24 months for a vaccine. There are studies involving recovered patients and the antibodies in their plasma that likely hold the most promise, but until something is established, a series of multinational clinical trials will likely need to be performed and vetted, followed by mass production, distribution, and likely further modification because it is unlikely we are going to get this right the first time.

Are you still running through all this and if so is that helping you cope with it?

I’m still trying to exercise. Now that the boys’ daycare is closed and the in-laws can’t help, so it’s tough to find extra time. I’ve been in contact with my former Foxes Sean Prinz (’06), Justin Harris (’06), Mike Schab (’06), Sean Hopkins (’05), and Mike Rolek (’08) and we have split into teams of two, Colorado, New York, and New Jersey and we have weekly running challenges. This has given me something else to think about and it’s the best thing that could have happened during all of this.

Other than what we are already doing, is there any advice you can give to the Marist Running community about how to cope with this on a day-to-day basis?

Don’t watch too much news and try to avoid social media. It’s overwhelming and can be quite anxiety provoking. There isn’t a single person that is not affected by this pandemic and some people are more equipped that others to handle the social distancing. This is the perfect time to pick up a new hobby, spend time with family, and do some things you otherwise might not have had time to do. For example, we now take the boys Geocaching, which is a global treasure hunt. It’s pretty cool. Millions of people have hid objects all over place and through the app you can find them. It gets us outside and we are able to explore the mountains/trails/suburbia in ways we wouldn’t have before.

Photo information: Top, CT racing at the 2006 outdoor MAACs in the 10,000-meter run (14 years ago!). Next, CT in his protective gear, working in the ER. Next: Racing in the Colorado Springs Half Marathon, September 2019. Next: CT, Lindsey and Murphy (the red fox lab!) on their cross-country drive three years ago.

Here is what CT posted along with the ER picture: I’m figuring out your pattern Corona. Dyspnea is the first sign but it’s already too late. We are now intubating sooner. Next comes one of two things, pink froth with or without hypotension or unpredictable hemodynamic instability alone. We are acting sooner. We are saving lives. We will beat this.