Beloved Teacher Tells a Near-Death Covid-19 Survival Story – “Claws in my neck”

Mark Vinci is a musician, a professor, a lover of life, and now a survivor. Vinci, who is a well-known saxophone player and teacher at Juilliard contracted COVID-19 and was hospitalized and on oxygen for several days in March. He has since recovered for the most part, and now plays the mini-trumpet each night at 7pm to say thank you to the healthcare workers who saved his life at Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Mark says that while he was in the hospital he was receiving messages and well-wishes that he was unable to respond to, being so close to death. So he hatched a plan and made a video inside of Cornell and sent it out, he says that stunt cost him three hours of coughing, and the doctors recommended that he not do it again.

Mark’s wife Jan, an accomplished flute player, was devastated by his sudden illness and hospitalization, and when the doctors told her that she had to leave the hospital, she feared she would never see her husband again.