Jeffrey Gurian is a legend on the New York City comedy scene. He can also be found on his YouTube channel, Comedy Matters TV and making appearances on shows such as “Crashing,” “Kroll Show” and “The Real Housewives of New York.”
Gurian — who is also a retired dentist and author of the spiritual book “Healing Your Heart, By Changing Your Mind” — had a packed schedule as usual leading up to the coronavirus shutdown. In just a few days at the beginning of March, he recorded a podcast at Comic Strip Live, attended a Barry Sonnenfeld and Jerry Seinfeld event at the 92nd Street Y, filmed with comics at the New York Comedy Club and went to a National Lampoon show. When he got home from that last outing, he started to sneeze, cough and feel strange. Things went downhill from there.
“I was sick for 14 days before I went to the hospital,” Gurian said in a phone interview with the Journal. “I just couldn’t take it anymore. I was distraught and hopeless and so weak I could barely move. I needed help so badly.”
In the two weeks leading up to his hospitalization, Gurian, 63, experienced constant nausea, a fever, night sweats, full body chills and the shakes. He didn’t want to go to the hospital because he was in a high-risk group, having survived a widowmaker heart attack in which an artery was 95% blocked.
However, his children finally persuaded him to go. By the time the ambulance arrived, he didn’t even remember pulling himself up on the stretcher. He did recall that his nose was bleeding profusely.
“I had to do a lot of mind control not to feel sorry for myself,” Gurian said. “But I believe very strongly in grace. Everyone has a path. It’s easy to believe your principles when everything is going well but when [things aren’t] going well, it’s important to remain calm. After I had my heart attack, I was at the comedy club a few days later. The owner said I was crazy and I said, ‘Yeah, but it’s really hard to get a spot.’ ”
Gurian credits his spiritual beliefs and humor with getting him through the four days he spent in NYU Langone Health hospital, where his blood pressure dropped so low that the nurses couldn’t find his veins. They also did three uncomfortable nose swabs, took chest X-rays and performed an ultrasound of his lungs. A pulmonary specialist told him he had COVID-19 pneumonia in both lungs.
“Before I went to the hospital, I started myself on a Z-pack,” Gurian said. “They had me on oxygen and on the second day, they [removed it] to see how I would do without it. I was breathing 95-96% on my own. Hydroxychloroquine or Plaquenil helped me get better on my second day. They gave me zinc. The full regimen was what helped.”
“I always try to keep a sense of humor and look at things in a positive way. I kept reminding myself that for whatever reason, this is my path. I can’t engage in self-pity. There are a lot of people sicker than I was.” — Jeffrey Gurian
When Gurian’s temperature returned to normal, he was transferred from a private room to one with three other COVID-19 patients with whom he had to share a bathroom. One was an Orthodox Jewish man who was rushed to the ICU after his oxygen dropped. There was a woman next to him screaming with every breath she took.
“At the beginning, it was driving me crazy,” he said. “I needed to stay calm and centered. I had to flip the thought and step outside of myself and think how sick and scared she must have been.”
After four days in the hospital Gurian was allowed to leave, strapped on a stretcher so he couldn’t move his arms and wearing a mask with a shield on his face. “It was an overwhelming experience and it left me with what I think is PTSD,” he said. “I’m literally afraid to leave the house.”
In the past seven weeks, Gurian has still been sick, though to a lesser degree. He finished his third round of Z-pack, but he said it still hurts to breathe and he has a cough, which makes him very nervous. “I asked [at the hospital] if I have immunity or if I’m in danger of getting re-infected, and they said to be honest, it’s too soon. So I’m nervous to go anywhere.”
The only time Gurian gets outside is to stand on his terrace, but even then he wears a mask. A neighbor has been shopping for him, and around Passover, his friend Rabbi Shmary Gurary, with whom he often has dinner, dropped off a box of shmura matzo for him.
“I got tremendous support from people, which helps so much when you’re sick,” he said. “Ron Bennington announced my situation on SiriusXM, and I got hundreds and hundreds of prayers and responses and messages.”
Some of those messages came from fellow comedians including Bill Burr, Nick Kroll, Jim Norton, Colin Quinn and Gad Elmaleh, as well as the owners of New York comedy clubs including the Comic Strip Live, Gotham Comedy Club and the Comedy Cellar.
It was that sort of outreach, along with the nurses, doctors and ambulance workers, a good attitude and a sense of humor that Gurian said kept him going. “I always try to keep a sense of humor and look at things in a positive way,” he said. “I kept reminding myself that for whatever reason, this is my path. I can’t engage in self-pity. There are a lot of people sicker than I was. A lot of it is about your ability to change the way you think. Try to stay positive and keep everything in perspective. That’s always my goal.”
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