Dec 21, 2020
Colleagues, friends and family members remembered Dr. Yee Se Ong as a well-respected man who gave his life caring for his patients in Muskogee and other parts of rural Oklahoma.Â
Ong, 76, who became the first cardiologist to establish a practice in Muskogee when he moved here in July 1979, died early Monday due to complications related to COVID-19. A database compiled by the Guardian and Kaiser Health News indicates Ong could become the second Muskogee physician to die of the disease while battling the novel coronavirus â Dr. John Robert Oglesbee, 80, died of COVID-19 complications in April.
Jasmine Ong said her father spent virtually every waking hour during most of the past several months caring for COVID patients in the intensive care unit at Saint Francis Hospital Muskogee. She said during most of those hours he should have been sleeping. Â