Abraham Lopez is used to big fights. He stepped into the ring more than 100 times as an amateur boxer and has won 23 bouts as a pro. What he is confronting at his day job as a respiratory therapist in Los Angeles is unlike any challenge he’s faced in the ring.
Lopez, 32, is among the thousands of frontline healthcare workers battling to save lives in the COVID-19 pandemic. His work at Olympia Medical Center includes operating ventilators—the life-saving machines that keep patients breathing.
“I don’t fear going into the ring because I prepare for it,” he says. “But at work you can prepare so much and you never know.”
