STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Mario F. Gallucci thought he was indestructible.
Despite all the warnings about the dangers of the coronavirus (COVID-19), the popular Bloomfield-based criminal defense lawyer travelled widely in recent months. Twice, he flew out of the country.
He also hit Las Vegas and Myrtle Beach.
Those actions continued a pattern that started at the beginning of the pandemic last year.
Gallucci said he pooh-poohed COVID-19 admonitions and would make “Mad Max” runs to the supermarket, stocking up on hard-to-get supplies for neighbors and himself.
And now he’s paying the price. Big time.
Gallucci, on Wednesday, was flat on his back in a New Jersey hospital for the 15th day, brought down first by the coronavirus and then a flareup the disease triggered in his autoimmune system.
“I really believed this was all nonsense to the point where my friends were telling me, ‘You’re being reckless,’” Gallucci said in a phone conversation. “I thought they were really exaggerating it. I really thought it was politics.”
Criminal defense lawyer Mario F. Gallucci, seen during his closing argument at Michael Sykes' murder retrial in 2018, said his recent case of COVID-19 was "preventable."
Earlier in the week on Monday, Gallucci had emailed Brian Laline, the executive editor of the Advance/SILive.com.
The lawyer said he felt compelled to reach out in response to a column Laline published on Sunday.
Laline had called out Fox News’ Tucker Carlson.
Carlson had urged his listeners to call police and child protective services on those parents who make their kids wear masks outside. He likened those parents’ actions to child abuse.
Carlson also said people wearing masks outside should be asked “politely but firmly” to remove them.
Laline called that kind of talk “mind-boggling.”
Because even with vaccinations available and infection rates declining, the pandemic is not over, Laline pointed out.
“People still get COVID. People are still dying,” he wrote, adding that less than 30% of America is fully vaccinated.
Gallucci told Laline he was “moved” by his column.
“I’m telling you right now this is real,” wrote Gallucci. “I write you from the hospital. I just spent 11 days in ICU battling a disease. I was arrogant, cavalier and downright stupid.”
“People like myself need a gut check,” Gallucci added. “This stupid premise about politics and about rights is nonsense. This is about living, plain and simple. … I appreciate your position and hopefully people listen to your advice.”
In his column, Laline cited a recent Monmouth University study that found that 1 in 5 Americans don’t want the vaccine.
The resistance falls along party lines. Forty-three percent of Republicans say they’ll refuse, compared to 5% of the Democrats, while 22% of independents won’t get vaccinated.
Gallucci said his problems started on April 20.
That night he walked three or four steps up toward his second-floor bedroom and couldn’t go any farther.
His wife rushed him to the hospital where he was placed in the Intensive Care Unit. Gallucci was given oxygen for over a week to help him respirate.
“I couldn’t breathe,” he said. “It was as if I was sucking oxygen through a cocktail straw. … My mother was crying on the phone. She couldn’t believe how bad I was.”
Attorney Mario F. Gallucci said he was hospitalized with COVID-19 for 11 days.
Gallucci said he was released on Saturday after he was able to breathe on his own. However, he went back into the hospital on Sunday.
Although he no longer had COVID-19, the disease had aggravated an existing problem with his autoimmune system, he said.
Gallucci is still able to breathe on his own as doctors work to get his autoimmune flareup under control.
He said he’ll be released once that happens.
“Brian was right,” he said. “I was impervious to this. This was all preventable.”
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‘I was arrogant, downright stupid.’ From hospital bed, prominent lawyer has message for S.I. on COVID. - SILive.com
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