34-year-old ER doc dies suddenly. Colleagues mourn loss of ‘irreplaceable,’ humble doctor
Story by Fernando Alba, syracuse.com • 2h ago
Dr. Bradley Middleton with his wife, Elizabeth.© Fernando Alba | falba/syracuse.com/TNS
Syracuse, N.Y. — Bradley Middleton was a rising doctor at Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse.
Last week, the 34-year-old was supposed to graduate residency before starting another year of training at Upstate. He had plans to stay at the hospital and someday join the faculty.
But three days before the ceremony, he collapsed suddenly in his home. Middleton was rushed to the same emergency room where he worked and co-workers tried to revive him. After almost an hour, they were unsuccessful.
Middleton died last Monday, leaving behind his pregnant wife and two young girls. The couple’s baby boy is due to be born this week.
Middleton was an Upstate lifer, said Dr. David Andonian, the hospital’s residency program director for emergency medicine.
He went to medical school there, choosing his specialty in emergency medicine. After residency, he planned on taking training to become an emergency ultrasound specialist and staying at Upstate, Andonian said this week.
Dr. Bradley Middleton© Fernando Alba | falba/syracuse.com/TNS
“He fell in love with this neighborhood. He fell in love with us. We fell in love with him,” Andonian said. “We knew this was going to be a forever kind of thing.”
Andonian met Middleton in his third year as a med student as he was taking a rotation in the emergency department. Just one week into the rotation, Andonian said he could tell Middleton was a natural.
“It was like a fish to water,” he said. “You see this kid show up in the ER as a third-year medical student, and it seems like he’s been there for the longest time.”
Emergency medicine is a calling, Andonian said. It takes a certain kind of person to willingly choose the chaos and disorder of an emergency room. But Middleton was one of them.
“He is calm in calamity. That’s just his baseline,” Andonian said. “That’s who he is. No matter how extreme the situation might be.”
Middleton was a poised, capable and humble doctor who never lost his hunger to learn and grow, Andonian said. But it was his compassion that stood out and his patients saw that.
In doctor feedback forms, Upstate patients and visitors praised Middleton’s kindness, knowledge and genuine concern.
“The resident that was working during our visit was beyond amazing,” a parent of a patient said
. “[He] kept reassuring me that I was doing the right thing for her and was so understanding of why I was nervous for her...He really put my mind at ease during our visit and made sure all my questions and concerns were answered.”
Andonian believes Middleton went into emergency medicine to comfort people on their worst days.
“It’s a very moving thing to be there for somebody or a family in a moment of chaos and be able to find some amount of control and comfort in any level of craziness,” he said.
Middleton grew up around Lake George. There in sixth grade, he met his wife, Liz. It was on a hike they took together in 2004 that she knew they would someday be married, according to Andonian.
On Monday June 26,, Middleton told his wife he wasn’t feeling well. After going in the bathroom and locking the door behind him, his wife could hear him collapse almost immediately, Andonian said.
An ambulance was called and crews tried their best to resuscitate Middleton before taking him to the emergency room. How he died is still a mystery, Andonian said.
In place of a traditional funeral, family and friends will be holding a celebration of life for Middleton.
“That’s what Brad would have wanted, not to wear black suits and come and mourn,” Andonian said. “He wants people feeling positive and celebrate the things that he left behind.”
“Brad is irreplaceable. I think we’re all struggling with his loss and his absence,” Andonian said. “This place will always be better for having known him and the people will continue to work in his memory.”
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