A second Filipino American nurse succumbed to the deadly pandemic scourging the world.
Noel Sinkiat, 64, only had a year to go before retirement from his job at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C, where he had worked for 41 years. He was looking forward to a long motorcycle trip with his friends when he planned to retire in December.
Sinkiat is the second known Filipino American nurse in the US and the first member of the 155,000 member of National Nurses United to fall victim to the coronavirus. About the time Sinkiat was admitted to the hospital on March 27, nursing veteran Araceli Buendia Ilagan, 63, passed away from the virus in Miami.
“It was so fast,” said Lourdes Gerardo, Sinkiat’s wife.
Like so many who had died from COVID-19, he died alone, unable to have his wife by his bedside. Instead, she was able to see him briefly from behind a protective suit.
Since his death, she tested positive for the coronavirus so she could not pick up his body from the hospital or to properly mourn his passing with friends and family.
The couple had just returned from a trip to the Philippines where they celebrated a reunion with classmates from his high school.
Upon his return to their home in Olney, Maryland, he went back to work and did his usual 12-hour shift at Howard.
On March 12, he began experiencing flu-like symptoms, which he initially thought was his allergies acting up. He went to an urgent care facility near Olney where he was tested for both the flu and the coronavirus, his wife described to the Washington Post. He did not return to work.
On the evening of March 27, his wife took him to MedStar Montgomery Medical Center where his health rapidly deteriorated. Within an hour, she told SF Gate, the doctors had to intubate him; then his heart failed, and they could not resuscitate him.
The test confirming his that he had the virus did not come back until after his death
“I got better,” she said. “But he didn’t.”
One of his sons was able to retrieve his father’s body for cremation, according to SF Gate.
As a senior nurse at Howard, she said her husband was often in charge. She has heard from doctors, housekeepers and security staff since his death about how he helped them.
“A lot of people there at Howard really loved him,” Gerardo told the Washington Post. “He was a very good nurse.”
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