Cornavirus devastates two Filipino American families of healthcare workers

TAPIRU FAMILY

Luis II Tapiru, left, and his parents Josephine and Luis, Sr., Tapiru.

It is not unusual for family members to follow other relatives into similar careers. This tendency has devastated two Filipino families that chose jobs in the healthcare field.

Josephine Tapiru, a nurse, and her husband Luis, Sr., who was also a part-time caregiver, were fighting for their lives at AMITA Health St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, Illinois, when their son, Luis Tapiru, 20, died of the virus alone in his apartment on April 10.

Four days later, Josephine Tapiru, 56, who worked as a nurse at a nursing home, succumbed to the virus.

On April 16, Luis Sr. was informed of the deaths of his son and wife. Doctors waited until he was off a ventilator before telling him.

“He was in shock. He was in tears. He couldn’t believe it,” said the family’s other son, Justin Tapiru, 28, who helped deliver the news via FaceTime from Canada, where he lives.

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Originally from the Philippines, the Tapirus moved to Chicago from Gatineau, Quebec, about 13 years ago. Other family members, including Josephine Tapiru's mother, still live in Canada.

Those Canadian relatives knew the younger Luis, a student at Harold Washington College, was alone in the family's condo and checked in on him frequently. On April 13, Luis II told his brother Justin and grandmother that he felt fine.

However, the grandmother could sense Luis II wasn't feeling well and told him to go the hospital. Follow-up phone calls went unanswered. The next day, when police responded to a request for a well-being check, the deceased Luis II was found on his couch.

Friends in Canada established a GoFundMe campaign to help defray funeral expenses.

PABATAO FAMILY

Healthcare workers Alfredo and Susan Pabatoa died within days of each other.

Earlier, the coronavirus claimed the lives of both Alfredo and Susana Pabatoa, a New Jersey couple. Alfredo, 68, was a medical transporter, while Susana, 64, was an assistant nurse at a nursing home. They died in March, within days of each other.

Alfredo Pabatoa died first on March 26 at Hackensack Meridian Health Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, N.J.

A few floors away, his wife of 44 years was also battling the virus. When her daughter, Sheryl Pabatoa told Susana about her husband's death, Susana seemed resigned, said Sheryl Pabatoa. She asked her daughter to locate her "Do Not Resuscitate" paperwork so she could sign it.

Sheryl and her siblings debated whether they should ask the physicians to remove the breathing tube at their mother’s wish, but ultimately decided to let her fight the virus.

Four days later, she died.

“She tried to fight. But she had no progress or regression. We were probably just keeping her alive," Sheryl Pabatao said.

The Pabataos were neighbors in the Philippines. They got married in 1976 and immigrated to the US in 2001.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Hospitals' and states' reluctance to keep records of the race of those who have died from coronavirus has made it difficult to obtain the true toll of AAPI who have fallen to the pandemic. Views From the Edge has had to rely on local publications to find out the identities and ethnicity of the COVID-19 victims.