This Memorial Day, a different battlefield, and medical pros show same heroic spirit | Editorial

Memorial Day is, and always will be, the day to honor American soldiers who died — starting with the Civil War — on battlefields here and around the world. These are the conscripts and the volunteers who gave their lives to save their fellow soldiers — and the rest of us.

This Memorial Day, unlike any other in our lifetime, we are engaged in a strange and different war, on a vastly different battlefield. It’s not a shooting war, but the fight against the coronavirus, too, is deadly to civilians and soldiers alike. To our shame, the heroes of this conflict have been under-equipped, denied the proper weapons and, in some American cities, even challenged by jeering mobs with both twisted minds and faces.

Monday will be a day to honor the doctors, nurses and healthcare providers, who — like soldiers — gave their lives saving others: Dr. Alex Hsu, a Margate internist, was the first medical practitioner in South Florida to lose his life to the disease he was helping others vanquish. Araceli Buendia Ilagan, an ICU nurse, cared for patients at Jackson Memorial for more than three decades. She was the third person to die of COVID-19 in Miami-Dade County. Soon after, Jackson Memorial suffered another loss — Devin Dale Francis, a technician in the radiology department died of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus.

Salute them, too, while taking the time to acknowledge the many other healthcare warriors who continue the fight. Here are just a few of them.