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The Frontline Fight: Surgical technician battles the pandemic – in the hospital and the boxing ring

For Marcia Agripino, the battle against COVID-19 has been two-fold.

NEW LONDON, Conn. — Frontline workers have been part of the fight of their lives over the past year as the battle against COVID-19 continues.

For Marcia Agripino, a 38-year-old surgical technician at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London, the fight has been two-fold.

During the day, Apripino cares for patients at the hospital but after hours she spends her time at the Whaling City Athletic Club -- in the boxing ring.

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“Every day it’s a fight,” Agripino told FOX61 while sitting on the apron of the ring inside the club. “You go to work and you’re battling the virus, it’s no different than coming in here and fighting a battle.”

Apripino has a number of professional fights to her credit but has had to stop boxing ever since it was discovered she had a dislocation and a hairline fracture in her neck – an injury that was fixed during cervical fusion surgery at her own hospital.

However, Agripino still spars at the gym and has spent most of the last few months rehabbing her injury and coaching.

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Kent Ward, the owner of the Whaling City Athletic Club told FOX61 that Apripino has “managed to pull herself up by her bootstraps and really go out and do some good things in and out of the ring.”

Agripino said that her message from both the ring and the hospital are similar.

“I believe we’re coming to the end of this (pandemic) and, in the end, we’re going to have our hands raised,” she said.

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