Max Gomez, a medical reporter on TV stations in New York and Philadelphia for more than four decades, died September 2 in Manhattan. Known as “Dr. Max,” he was 72 and had battled cancer.
Gomez was at WCBS New York from 2007 to 2022, following stints at WNBC and WNEW (now WNYW) New York, and KYW Philadelphia. He also appeared on 48 Hours.
Maximo Marcelino Gomez III was born in 1951 in Havana, reported The New York Times, and grew up in Miami. He got his bachelor’s degree at Columbia and a Ph.D. in neurosciences from Wake Forest University. Gomez was also a postdoctoral fellow at Rockefeller University in New York.
He joined WNEW in 1980 and moved to KYW late in 1984. He left in 1990 and moved back to New York, working at WCBS, where he was a medical reporter and health editor, and WNBC, where he was health and science editor from 1997 to 2006, then WCBS again in 2007, where he had the title of chief medical correspondent.
Gomez is survived by his partner, Amy Levin, and children, Max and Katie.
WCBS said: “Dr. Gomez was deeply loved and respected in our newsroom, by medical professionals he worked with, patients who shared their stories with him and our viewers. He was our in-house consultant for whatever ailed us, eager to help, genuinely concerned and never thought twice about going the extra mile.”
Gomez’s books include Cells are the New Cure: The Cutting-Edge Medical Breakthroughs That Are Transforming Our Health, which he co-authored.
WCBS called Gomez “a steady voice of reason during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
