SUGAR LAND, Texas – The family of a longtime Fort Bend County doctor says the general practitioner died of COVID-19 after treating a positive patient.
Dr. Stephen Ho, 73, died last Monday after spending two weeks in the hospital fighting the virus.
“Every day up until the end it was always, I’m doing better. I’m stronger. I’m doing better,” his daughter Catherine Fong told KPRC 2. “So he fought. He fought and he fought and then just all of the sudden we didn’t hear from him.”
Ho owned the 7 Days Doctors Clinic in the 12000 block of Wilcrest. The clinic recently moved to southwest Houston after more than a decade in Fort Bend County. Ho treated hundreds of patients.
“He’s a loving guy. Very giving. Very caring,” said his wife, Kheng Phang. “We have been together for almost 30 years. We have breakfast together, dinner together, travel together, everything we do is always together.”
In March, Phang asked her husband if they should shut down the clinic due to the threat of coronavirus, but Phang said her husband told her he took an oath to help people and he wasn’t going to stop working.
She believes a patient who tested positive around the holidays passed the virus on to them.
Dr. Ho, Phang and his daughter all got sick.
“I feel horrible. Horrible. I feel like all my esophagus is closed and everything is dried up and my tongue was stiff,” Phang said.
But Phang and the others recovered.
Tuesday, they shared memories of a man who liked the stage just as much as his doctor’s office.
”He loved Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin, The Rolling Stones. He just loved to sing, he loved the theater,” Fong said. “Life really is too short. Hold the ones you love, especially now.
Dr. Ho leaves behind his wife, five children and six grandchildren.
His family is planning a private memorial next week on what would have been the doctor’s 74th birthday.
While Dr. Ho had been trying to get the vaccine, his wife says he wasn’t able to do so.