Hyde Park Doctor Helps Son Save Mother

A quick-thinking medical student and Hudson Valley doctor are to thank for saving a Brooklyn woman's life.

James Bruzzese is a 23-year-old med student at the CUNY School of Medicine. According to The New York Post, James is currently living at home with his family in Brooklyn. Back in March James' mother, Josephine Bruzzese woke up with a fever, body aches, dry cough and trouble breathing. She also lost her sense of taste and smell.

The family took her to their local hospital and Josephine was diagnosed with pneumonia but wasn't able to get tested for COVID-19 since no test were available. Doctors prescribed the antibiotic azithromycin and the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.

James says his mother's symptoms started to calm down however, she was still having a difficult time breathing. So much so that they were worried every time she stood up that she would pass out.

It was at that point that James decided to reach out to Hudson Valley doctor, Dr. Richard Horowitz. The Bruzzese family has worked with Dr. Horowitz, who is a Lyme Disease specialist in Hyde Park, in the past as he helped James' younger Julia with her Lyme Disease diagnosis.

Horowitz told James to have his mother try glutathione. When speaking to the New York Post Dr. Horowitz said: "When you get a viral infection with a huge amount of inflammation you don’t have enough glutathione to be able to protect your very sensitive lung tissue.”

Within hours of taking one 2,000-milligram dose, Joanne was breathing better and was able to get up and down numerous times and even made the bed.

While glutathione worked for Joanne Bruzzese, an infectious disease, allergy and immunology specialist at NYU Langone Hospital Dr. Purvi Parikh says more testing needs to be done.

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