Coronavirus: 70-year-old nurse who worked for NHS for 44 years dies
Written by News on 08/04/2020
A “dedicated” NHS nurse who had worked for the health service for 44 years has died after contracting coronavirus.
Alice Kit Tak Ong, 70, passed away at the Royal Free Hospital in London on Tuesday after it was thought she contracted COVID-19 while working in a doctor’s surgery without the correct protective equipment.
She had initially self-isolated but had to be taken to the hospital when her coronavirus symptoms worsened.
The nurse arrived in the country in the 1970s from Hong Kong and began working for the NHS as soon as she was able to, and was still working full-time until her death.
Speaking to The Guardian, her daughter Melissa Ong said she was “completely dedicated” and spent her life helping others.
She said: “We don’t know for sure when she contracted it, but she was working without protective equipment.
“We’ve accepted it, she was doing what she loved.”
The family were unable to visit the nurse due to the current lockdown restrictions, but her daughter praised the staff caring for her mother.
“The nurses and doctors were fantastic throughout. They kept us in touch right up to the last moment so she could hear us over the phone,” she said.
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“I knew she was in good hands, and they were with her in her last moments.”
“She had a very good heart and very generous personality. Everybody loved her. She always believed in the good in people.”
A care worker from Bury has also died, and is suspected to have contracted COVID-19.
Mother-of-two Carol Jamabo, 56, had worked for the NHS and the prison service, and moved to the UK from Nigeria in the 1990s and had been working most recently at a care home in Manchester.
Her nephew Dakuro Fiberesima told Sky News: “My aunty was so loving, so bubbly and so full of life. Everyone who knew her knows she’s such a great aunty.
Mr Fibersima has set up a GoFundMe appeal to help pay for her funeral costs.
(c) Sky News 2020: Coronavirus: 70-year-old nurse who worked for NHS for 44 years dies
