‘Emergency NYC’: Who Is Dr. David Langer?
Netflix’s new reality series Emergency NYC takes viewers inside the high-stakes world of several hospitals in America’s largest city. The show follows along as doctors, nurses, EMTs, and other medical professionals respond to medical emergencies across New York City. One of those doctors is David Langer, a neurosurgeon at Lenox Hill Hospital.
Dr. David Langer is the chair of neurosurgery at Lenox Hill Hospital
In the first episode of Emergency NYC, Dr. Langer operates on a 29-year-old opera singer who had a stroke at a wedding. It’s all in a day’s work for Langer, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania medical school and one of the leading neurosurgeons in the U.S. For the past decade, he’s served as the chair of neurosurgery at Lenox Hill Hospital. But despite his many professional accomplishments, he’s far from a “detached surgeon,” he wrote in an article for Northwell Health.
“I know the limits of my professional powers and skills,” he wrote. “That has shaped me into a surgeon who strives to connect with my patients and offer them not just surgical precision, but empathy. It’s a point of pride for me and a daily reminder that I entered this field for personal reasons. I’d lost my dad to a stroke; it would be a disconnect for me to manage my work without my whole heart.”
He also appeared in Netflix’s ‘Lenox Hill’
If Dr. Langer looks familiar, that’s probably because you’ve seen him before in another Netflix show. He also appeared in Lenox Hill, a Netflilx docuseries from the same team that created Emergency NYC. The show debuted in 2020.
Starring in a reality series wasn’t a twist Langer saw coming in his life. Decades ago, he decided to pursue a career in neurology. He switched to that field from cardiology because he wanted to help his father following his stroke.
“I think psychologically, I was trying to save him,” Langer told The New York Times in 2021. “Then you end up in a Netflix show. It’s the sliding door and randomness of life that’s incredibly humbling.”
The ‘Emergency NYC’ star’s skiing accident took him from doctor to patient
Dr. Langer became a doctor to help other people, but he ended up being the one who needed care after a serious skiing accident left him unable to move his arms or legs. He was diagnosed with central cord syndrome, a temporary injury to the spinal cord.
Emergency NYC highlights Langer’s treatment and recovery at Lenox Hill Hospital. While some doctors might have chosen to be treated at a different hospital so their colleagues didn’t have to become involved in their treatment, Langer was firm in wanting to be cared for by the team at Lenox Hill. It ended up being a humbling experience
“The way it worked out, obviously, is truly extraordinary,” he said during an appearance on Northwell Health’s 20-Minute Health Talk podcast. “There was just this incredible difference between being a patient and being a physician. The difference of that was so – it was wild. And it ended up carrying a significant place in the show and in my life. To have that forever is really a privilege, and I’m humbled by the whole thing.”
Dr. Langer says caring for people ‘is a team effort’
While doctors like him get a lot of attention, Langer has said that the Netflix show highlights the work of everyone involved in caring for patients.
“Taking care of people is a team effort and I’m lucky enough to be working with a nursing staff and a group of people that’s committed to making people better whether it’s neurosurgery or spine surgery or what have you. I think that the show is emblematic of that,” he said on the podcast.
A patient “comes here asking for help and then we provide a structure and a group of people that’s committed to that,” he added. “The moving parts from the neurologists and the PAs and the nurses to the OR staff and the techs and the ICU staff and again nursing all the way through.”
Emergency NYC is currently streaming on Netflix.
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