At 28, he was also perhaps the youngest up to then. Brad, a Pawtucket firefighter, likely got infected as an EMT. By late March 2020, he was doing eight or more COVID runs a day, carrying patients down staircases. Now, having caught the virus himself, Brad was in a room in Miriam Hospital’s ICU. He felt like he was trying to catch his breath after a sprint, except he couldn’t. Brad was in an isolation room, a half dozen staff moving fast around him. Someone strapped a clear BiPAP mask around his nose and mouth to push in oxygen. In his work, he’d often dealt with people on the worst days of their lives — heart attacks, injuries, overdoses.