Patients and friends of a Nutley doctor who died from COVID-19 safely gathered to remember him.

Dr. Michael Giuliano was a doctor to township workers for 15 years. He was treating multiple patients for the virus but was not able to beat it himself.

A bagpiper played outside Giuliano’s Franklin Avenue office as a procession of firetrucks and police cars filed by. Some of the families of his practice over the last 30 years gathered on the front lawn.

“We miss him. He was a good person, a special doctor and a good friend,” says former patient Maria Carnicella.

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Carnicella is a breast cancer survivor.

Giuliano’s family says that he didn’t stop treating COVID-19 patients, even though he was at risk himself. He died on Saturday, only 11 days after he was diagnosed.

“This is one of the things he did best. He treated everyone like family and everybody was close to him,” says Nutley Mayor Joe Scarpeli.

Township Commissioner Tom Evans called him a humanitarian and outstanding clinician.

“He just cared about people. When you went to his office, he treated everyone in his office as if he was treating family,” Evans says.

A nurse who worked with Giuliano at Mountainside Hospital tells News 12 New Jersey that he was always in a good mood, and always had his own special way of comforting his geriatric patients.