Coronavirus claims life of Queens, NY doctor

DR. TOMAS PATTUGALAN

Dr. Tomas Pattugalan, a private practice primary care physician in Queens, NY, passed away Sunday morning, March 29, in the emergency department at Nassau University Medical Center. 

The entire Primary PartnerCare family mourns the loss of their colleague and extends their deepest sympathy to the family of Dr. Pattugalan.

"It is with profound sadness that I announce the death of our colleague, Tomas Pattugalan, MD. Dr Pattugalan loved and cared for his patients, truly exemplifying the profession of medicine, and the critical role of primary care in our country." said Harry S. Jacob, MD, Chief Executive Medical Officer of Primary PartnerCare. "Being a doctor was not a job for Tomas, it was a calling and a profession. He loved being a doctor." Dr Jacob stated.

"Tomas was a friend and colleague and like many of our doctors, he continued to see patients in his Queens practice up until last week when he converted to telehealth" said Jack Mann, MD, Primary PartnerCare® director, and board-certified Internist/Pulmonologist. Dr. Mann continued 

"The frontline, private practice doctors are silently fighting this war with little recognition or support. We are all focused on the hospitals, and that is important, but in our organization, we have 100 independent primary care doctors, the majority still treating patients in their offices, and many transitioning to telehealth.

As of the last week of April, there has been 27 recorded coronavirus-related deaths of medical professionals in the US.

Pattugalan was born and raised in Tuguegarao City in the Philippines and moved to New York in the late 1970s with his first wife and eldest daughter Patricia. 

"I saw how he worked as I was growing up," Pattugalan's youngest daughter Tammy Justine Pattugalan, 14, told Business Insider. "He knew every one of his patients by name. That was truly one of his most desirable traits." 

Pattugalan was a devout Catholic, according to family members. In January, a few months before he passed, Pattugalan traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate his 70th birthday.

"It struck me when he told me that," said his son, Gino. "I think he started to see how thin the veil was between this life and next and he went to the Holy Land because he knew he just wouldn't know the time or hour [of his death] and I think he knew maybe something could happen."

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.