Everyone loved Maria Guia Cabillon so much that she became affectionately known as Mama Guia.
Dr. Thomas Pattugalan knew everyone of his patients by name.
Both Filipino Americans served patients in New York and both lost their lives doing what they loved most-caring for others.
At Brooklyn’s King County Hospital, workers released dozens of blue and white balloons in memory of Cabillon, the hospital’s head nurse, reported the Daily Beast.
In Queens, Dr. Harry Jacob, Chief Executive Medical Officer of Primary PartnerCare remembered Pattugalan as someone who “loved and cared for his patients, truly exemplifying the profession of medicine and the critical role of primary care in our country, ” reported Views from the Edge.
“Being a doctor was not a job for Tomas, it was a calling and a profession. He loved being a doctor.” Dr Jacob stated.
Sirens from 10 ambulances, three emergency response buses and a number of police vehicles blared in honor of Cabillon shortly after the balloon release.
According to CBS New York, Cabillon had four daughters and sent money back to her family in the Philippines where she visited once a year.
Those that knew her described her as feisty with a strong voice, despite her 5′ foot stature. Mama Guia considered everyone her children. Her legacy in the medical community will live on as all four of her daughters are also nurses.
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,” Gino said.
“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.”
Views from the Edge contributed to this report
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