An Arizona ER doctor who says he was fired for speaking up about the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic is returning to work after news of the incident sparked a public outcry.

The story began Nov. 22, when Yuma Regional Medical Center (YRMC) emergency room physician Dr. Cleavon Gilman arrived at work to discover there were no Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds in the state. Gilman, who has an active social media presence, tweeted his alarm.

Just got to work and was notified there are no more ICU beds in the state of Arizona.

— Cleavon MD (@Cleavon_MD) November 23, 2020

The next day, Gilman had already arrived at work when he received a phone call from Envision Healthcare, the staffing company that employs him, the Arizona Republic reported Thursday. The hospital, Envision said, no longer wanted him to work.

“They told me it was because of the tweets and I couldn’t believe it because that was accurate information I posted to inform the citizens of Arizona,” he told the Arizona Republic “It is a grave injustice and it’s not just happening to me. Doctors everywhere are afraid to speak up.”

At the time, the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) had claimed there were 176 ICU beds available in the state, according to an earlier Arizona Republic piece. However, Gilman was told that his hospital, which is located in rural Yuma County, was not able to transfer patients to other hospitals even though its ICU was full. Gilman speculated that there probably were not enough nurses to staff the beds the state claimed were left.

“An ICU bed without staff is like a plane without a pilot - USELESS!!”, he tweeted.

After he was told not to return to work, Gilman did not go public with the news until an Arizona Republic reporter reached out to him, he told MedPage Today.

“I wanted to share my side,” he said.

That decision seems to have paid off. Hours after the story broke, YRMC tweeted that the firing had been a “misunderstanding.”

“There is no question our nation’s COVID situation is serious. While he is not speaking on behalf of YRMC, we respect Dr. Gilman’s right to share his personal perspective on the pandemic,” YRMC wrote.

Gilman said YRMC’s statement was a lie.

“It was only when I took to social media and the pressure . . . came that they said I was allowed back to work on the front lines,” Gilman told MSNBC.

In a Saturday Facebook post, Gilman said he would be back to work on Monday and thanked his supporters for making this possible. He also took the time to support the rights of healthcare and other frontline workers to speak up.

“Thank you EVERYONE for the support. Truly unbelievable!! This would not have been possible without YOU, but it’s important to remember this is happening to 100s of doctors, nurses & healthcare workers nationwide, as well as teachers,” he wrote. “In January, we will begin pushing legislation to protect doctors & healthcare workers from retaliation and ensure they have due process.”

Gilman returns to work as the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread in both Yuma County and Arizona as a whole. The county has the highest rate of cases per 100,000 people in the state, according to ADHS data reported by the Arizona Republic Thursday. YRMC President and CEO Dr. Robert Trenschel told KYMA last week that the hospital is dealing with staffing shortages at twice the rate of the country. The hospital wants to open a fourth COVID unit to prepare for more cases but is not currently able to.

“It’s something that we’d like to do and be able to prepare - we don’t have the staff to do it right now,” Trenschel said. However, he did note a strike team of around 20 nurses was due to arrive at the hospital within days.

According to a Monday update from ADHS, there were 11,795 new coronavirus cases reported and one death. That’s the second-highest number of cases reported in the state in a single day, according to KTAR News. The record for daily cases was set six days ago at 12,314. The state also broke records for the number of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 hospitalizations for the third day in a row Sunday at 3,677. Both hospital inpatient beds and ICU beds are 91 percent full.

Overall, the state has seen 420,248 cases and more than 7,000 deaths.

Gilman, who served as a hospital corpsman with the U.S. Marines during the Iraq War, said the coronavirus pandemic was worse than a battlefield.

“The death toll during the entire Iraq War was equivalent to what we see now every single day,” he told the Arizona Republic. “You could leave a war zone if you couldn’t handle it. COVID is everywhere.”