(CNN) New Jersey emergency room doctor Frank Gabrin knew he could contract coronavirus when he walked into work to treat patients.

But still he continued, and about a week after contracting the virus Gabrin died in his husband's arms Tuesday. His loss is a lesson on the importance of caring for the people who are caring for the public, his friend Debra Vaselech Lyons told CNN's Chris Cuomo on Cuomo Prime Time.

Dr. Frank Gabrin

"It's not about the outcome, you don't get to save every patient, but it's about what you do with the outcome," Vaselech Lyons said Gabrin believed. "He lost his life needlessly because if he'd had the equipment -- he's a professional, he knew how to protect himself."

"We need to make something good come from this," she said.

Gabrin's husband, Arnold Vargas, spoke alongside Vaselech Lyon's about the loss of his husband but could barely make out the words through his tears.

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