Valley Stream doctor eliminated on ‘The Bachelorette’

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Bad news for fans of “Bachelorette” contestant Dr. Joe Park. On the seventh episode of the long-running reality television show, the Valley Stream native anesthesiologist was eliminated, along with three other contestants, after failing to receive a rose from Bachelorette Tayshia Adams.

Park, 36, had become a fan-favorite on the show for his kind, soft-spoken nature and a handful of humorous moments, but with little screen time, a connection between him and Adams appeared to not materialize. Park was one of 31 men competing for the heart of this season’s original Bachelorette, Clare Crawley, who stepped down after falling for contestant Dale Moss early in its run. Adams took over in Episode 5. 

Fans are now taking to social media and calling for Park to become the Bachelor for the 2022 season of the show. Currently, Matt James has been named for the upcoming season. With filming underway, it is slated to air in January, 2021, but after that, producers for the show are free to select whomever they’d like for the following season.

Park, speaking to Entertainment Weekly upon his elimination, said that by 2022 he hopes he isn’t still single.

“I hope I’m in a committed relationship by then!” he said. “I appreciate it, don’t get me wrong. It’s flattering, but it’s like, jeeze, I’m not getting any younger.”

Park has been a frontline worker during the pandemic, and also spoke about his struggles with Covid-19, which he himself contracted in March while working at a hospital. He described the isolation he had felt during those initial months. The experience, he said prompted him to agree to come onto the show as a contestant after its producers reached out to him.

“Honestly, I’d been in my apartment for the past few months — pretty much in my 400-square-foot cell — and going to work. If Covid has taught us anything, it would be seize the moment and just take advantage of the opportunities given to you,” he said. “This is not something that I would normally have done, but at this junction I was like, 2020 is such a weird year, so . . . That’s kind of how it happened.”

Park attended the George W. Hewlett High School, and later Georgetown University. He graduated from the Stonybrook School of Medicine in 2014, according to his Facebook. In his medical profile for AABP Integrative Pain Care, where he works as an interventional pain physician, Park completed his pain fellowship and residency at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and is currently an anesthesiologist at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn.

Outside of work, the profile continues, he is an avid surfer, runner and reader of non-fiction.

Taking to his Instagram shortly after leaving the show, Park thanked his friends, fans and family as well as staff on the show, including its “unsung heroes” made up of sound technicians, cameramen, handlers, housekeeping food service and medical staff. “There’s no magic in television,” he said in the post. “There are a lot of hard workers.”

“2020 has been such a challenging year, but we’ve all learned so much, even if it was the hard way,” he added. “And if we’re just still for a moment and look closely, there’s probably a lot more we have to be thankful for than we realize.”