{"id":254582,"date":"2020-05-12T07:20:09","date_gmt":"2020-05-12T11:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=254582"},"modified":"2020-05-12T07:20:09","modified_gmt":"2020-05-12T11:20:09","slug":"filipino-doctor-in-las-vegas-refused-to-retire-until-death-due-to-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/05\/12\/filipino-doctor-in-las-vegas-refused-to-retire-until-death-due-to-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Filipino Doctor in Las Vegas refused to retire until death due to COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Based in Las Vegas, Dr. Arthur Tayengco was a dedicated obstetrician-gynecologist of over 50 years who continued to see his patients in his private practice at Charleston Boulevard until he contracted the coronavirus. (File Photo: Michelle Tayengco)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The list of medical professionals who died in the line of duty in the United States due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) keeps on growing, as an 81-year-old Filipino doctor who refused to retire, practiced his profession until he succumbed to the virus.<\/p>\n

Based in Las Vegas, Dr. Arthur Tayengco was a dedicated obstetrician-gynecologist of over 50 years who continued to see his patients in his private practice at Charleston Boulevard until he contracted the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe loved medicine. He just wouldn\u2019t stop. I kept asking, \u2018Don\u2019t you want to retire yet?\u2019 He would say, \u2018No, I\u2019m not done,\u2019\u201d his eldest daughter Michele Tayengco revealed to the Asian Journal her father\u2019s passion in medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t just because of the pandemic. I would ask him that every now and then because he was getting frail-looking. He wasn\u2019t slowing down. He basically said \u2018It\u2019s not time yet. I\u2019m not yet done, what would I do with myself?\u2019\u201d Michele said.<\/p>\n

According to Dr. Tayengco\u2019s family, he was infected by the coronavirus in March after two of his medical assistants in his clinic tested positive of the COVID-19.<\/p>\n

He tested positive after exhibiting symptoms associated with the illness such as fever, cough, and loss of taste.\u00a0 The doctor remained in isolation at home until April 5 when he was brought to the hospital where he fought the disease for 16 days.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was sedated and ventilated immediately. The best we could do was bid farewell through a call via WebEx. It was getting so bad so fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

He died in the early hours of April 22 after being brought to the hospice care the previous day.<\/p>\n

Dr. Tayengco was part of the faculty at the University of Nevada-Reno (UNR) and was one of the founding members of the Philippine Medical Association of Nevada.<\/p>\n

According to Dr. Teresita Melocoton, president of the Philippine Medical Association of Nevada, Dr. Tayengco is the first practicing Filipino doctor in Las Vegas to die from COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I see newborns, the mother would always say, \u2018I hope Dr. Tayengco will not retire because I want to have another child.\u2019 That\u2019s how good he was,\u201d Dr. Melocoton told the\u00a0Asian Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The 81-year-old doctor was born in Iloilo City, Philippines, and received his medical degree from the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center College of Medicine in Manila. He came to the US in the early 1960s for his OB-GYN residency at St. Clare\u2019s Hospital and Health Care Center in New York.<\/p>\n

He completed a fellowship at Nassau Country Medical Center and also served as a clinical assistant professor at the University of Las Vegas, School of Medicine, and instructed hundreds of medical residents over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe loved the idea of being able to bring new children into the world. With every child that he met, he was always super engaged,\u201d Tayengco\u2019s younger daughter Stephanie told the\u00a0Asian Journal<\/em>. His daughters estimated that the number of newborns he has delivered may be equal to a student population of four high schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would try to get on their level and speak to them both as children but also treating them like miniature adults,\u201d Stephanie said.<\/p>\n

Dr. Tayengco is survived by his daughters, his ex-wife of whom he remained close, and his four sisters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The list of medical professionals who died in the line of duty in the United States due to the coronavirus …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":254584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-254582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-kathleen-mae-guerrero","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254582"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254587,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254582\/revisions\/254587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}