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.

Voices from the Frontline: EVS technician shares her COVID19 story on International Workers Day

SCREEN CAPTURE / APALA

Today (May 1) is International Workers Day, 2020 and in this coronavirus-dominated environment we're in right now, the workers deemed essential in battling the pandemic are the same workers that three months ago, were barely noticed.

The staff cleaning and sanitizing the hospital rooms, the farm workers picking produce and packing the meat, the clerks stocking the shelves, the folks delivering the mail  packages or supplies ordered online. Their work was taken for granted, barely seen as fellow human beings by most consumers and customers.

The video below is courtesy of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance featuring one such worker, a Filipina American, Angel Sherburne, an EVS tech at  the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. 

Angel is an EVS technician who keeps patients safe by disinfecting hospital rooms. Her work is critical to stop the spread of infection but the hospital is not providing sufficient PPE. Without protection for workers, both patients and workers suffer.
If there is one good thing to come out of this medical crisis and I hope will be part of our national consciousness, it is the newfound respect for these workers and a reevaluation of their importance and how "essential" they are to our society.

At the very least, raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour and provide healthcare for all. Personal Protective Equipment for healthcare workers would be nice, too.

Covid-19 adds at least 4 more Asian American healthcare workers as victims

Four more Asian American health professionals, a doctor, a physician's assistant and two nurses, have died after contracting the once-in-a-lifetime coronavirus that has brought the United States to a virtual standstill. 

As of Friday (April 17) morning, at least 51 US healthcare workers identified by Reuters as having died after being diagnosed with or showing symptoms of the deadly virus.

The four fallen healthcare workers brings the number to nine Asian Americans, (known by Views From the Edge) who have perished from the pandemic.  

The other AAPI fallen heroes were: Ali Guillermo, Long Island Community Hospital; Dr. Alex Hsu, who was associated with the Northwest Medical Center in Margate, Florida; Kious Kelly, Mount Sinai Hospital West in New York City; and Filipino American nurses Ariceli Llagan of the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami and Noel Sinkiat of the Howard University Hospital.

Dr. Leo dela Cruz, geriatric psychiatrist

Dr. Leo dela Cruz, a physician from Jersey City died April 8. A physician affillitated with Christ Hospital in Jersey City., N.J., died Wednesday at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, New Jersey from complications with COVID-19

“It is with a great deal of sadness and heavy heart that we share with you the news of the passing of our beloved attending physician, Dr. Leo DeLaCruz,” Dr. Tucker Woods and Marie Duffy said in a statement.

“Once you met Dr. Dela Cruz, you would never forget him because of his kind, gentle and fun personality,” the statement continued. “He was a good person, a sweet man that was loved by everyone in the hospital.

On social media, co-workers and friends praised Dela Cruz, who was born in the Philippines. “He is one of the best friend you could ever have with gentle soul full of life and love to everyone,” One friend said. “Voted as one of the best doctors in New Jersey three years in a row!”

Madhvi Aya, 61, Woodhull Medical Center, Brooklyn

Madhvi Aya had been a doctor in India, then trained to become a physician assistant after she immigrated to the United States in 1994. She had worked for a dozen years at Woodhull Medical Center, a public hospital in Brooklyn.

The 61-year old health worker began coughing around the time of her last shift on March 12. On March 18, her cough worsened and husband brought her to Long Island Jewish Medical Center, near their home. That was the last time he saw her. She died on March 29.

“She was always there for us, whenever we wanted,” her husband said. But when she got sick, “no one was next to her,” he said.

There's no telling when Madhvi Aya contracted the coronavirus. She was taking care of patients in early March before it was required to wear masks as the staff took care of patients. The hospital didn't require personal protective gear for staff caring for Covid-19 patients until March 17.

“This has been a heavy blow to us all,” Dr. Robert Chin, Woodhull’s emergency department director, said in an internal email on April 1. He asked coworkers for donations to help Aya’s family, for whom she had been the primary wage earner.

Daisy Doronila, 60, Hudson County Correctional Facility, N.J.

On April 5, Daisy Doronila was the fourth employee at the Hudson county correctional facility to die from the coronavirus.

“There would be people there for the most heinous crimes,” said her daughter, Denise Rendor, 28, “but they would just melt towards my mother because she really was there to give them care with no judgment.”

“Daisy could handle herself,” said the county director of corrections, Ron Edwards, describing her as sophisticated, intelligent and compassionate. “If someone got obnoxious with her, she’d put them in their place and call for help if she needed to.”

The jail in New Jersey where Doronila worked has been hit hard by the virus. As of April 10, the facility had 27 inmates and 68 staff members had tested positive, according to officials.

She was on self-quarantine after being diagnosed with COVID-19. On 21 March, she was hospitalized for shortness of breath. The next day, she was put on a ventilator. Two weeks later, she passed away.

Divinia Accad, 72, VA Medical Center nurse

Accad was looking forward to retirement after spending decades caring for US veterans, working her way up the ladder to become a Clinical nursing coordinator at the Detroit VA medical center in Detroit, Michigan

Accad cared for military veterans for over 25 years and was just a few weeks from retiring when the 72-year old Filipino immigrant contracted Covid-19

On 16 March, Accad told relatives that she felt ill. Four days later, she was hospitalized with pneumonia. She told her family that she had tested positive for Covid-19, and asked them to pray for her.

She was born in Alimodian, Philippines. The eldest of four children, she graduated from Central Philippine University with a nursing degree in 1969.

Two years later, she moved to Chicago through a “fly now, pay later” program, joining tens of thousands of Filipino nurses who have moved to the United States. She later relocated to Taylor, Michigan, where she married William Accad, with whom she raised four children.

Her son, Mark Accad, said his mother Accad “died doing what she loved most – caring for people.”