(CNN) Certified registered nurse anesthetist Derrick Smith is no stranger to the horrors of losing patients. But now, the coronavirus pandemic has pushed him into a completely different, "much more terrifying" reality.

Smith, who is predominantly treating Covid-19 patients at a hospital in New York City, revealed the tragic last words of a dying man he was about to place on a ventilator: "Who's going to pay for it?" the coronavirus patient asked Smith in between labored breaths.

"They were last words I'll never forget," Smith told CNN.

"(This patient) was in severe respiratory distress, had difficulty speaking, and yet still his main concern was who could pay for a procedure that would his extend his life but statistically he doesn't have a good likelihood of survival."

Knowing that the patient was most likely not going to recover once he was intubated, Smith and his colleagues called the man's wife to give them what may have been their last chance to say goodbye.

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