81-year-old Las Vegas doctor dies from Covid-19

Views from the Edge

Eighty-one-year-old Dr. Arthur Tayengco, a Filipino American OB-GYN practitioner in Las Vegas, chose to continue his practice because he loved helping his patients. 

Although he was vulnerable to Covid-19 because of his advanced age, the physician continued to answer calls for help from overburdened hospitals.

After two of his employees in his office contracted the coronavirus, he became ill mid-March. Tayengco self-isolated at home until April 5 when he was hospitalized for 16 days. He died in the early hours of April 22.

“He loved medicine. He just wouldn’t stop. I kept asking, ‘Don’t you want to retire yet?’ He would say, ‘No, I’m not done,’” his eldest daughter Michele Tayengco, told Christina Oriel of the Asian Journal.

Born in Iloilo City, Philippines on Oct. 18, 1938, Tayengco received his medical degree from the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center College of Medicine in Manila.

“First his front office staff tested positive, which meant somehow it wandered into the office, and then he tested positive. We assumed it’s something within the office. But being the workaholic he was, he also practiced at the women’s prison in north Las Vegas. Maybe [it was] something from there we don’t know, but that’s also a hot spot,” said his daughter Michelle.

Over his 48-year practice in Las Vegas, Tayengco instructed hundreds of residents over the years as a clinical assistant professor at the University of Las Vegas School of Medicine.

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