Covid-19 didn’t stop him from being a doctor until it took his life

Longtime Port physician knew the risks of practicing during pandemic but wouldn’t abandon those he cared for
By 
KRISTYN HALBIG ZIEHM
Ozaukee Press staff

Celestino Perez had such a passion for medicine that even at age 81 he continued to practice out of his downtown Port Washington office.

“He was telling us, ‘Two or three more years and maybe I’ll retire,’” his son Carlo recalled.

Perez, an internist, knew the risks of practicing medicine in the midst of a pandemic — especially since he had several underlying conditions that made him vulnerable to Covid-19 — his son said, but he was dedicated to those he served.

“He felt that need to help people, especially in a pandemic,” his son said. “But it (Covid-19) was always in the back of his mind.”

Perez didn’t feel ill but on Thursday, Nov. 12, he took a routine Covid-19 test. Two days later, the test came back positive, and two days after that, on Monday, Nov. 16, he had trouble breathing and was extremely weak. He was admitted to Ascension Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital Ozaukee in Mequon, where he was on staff.

At 6:28 p.m. that day, his son said,  he called his father, who told him. “I feel good. I got my oxygen.”

But his father took a turn for the worse, he said, and just before midnight he died of Covid-19, renal failure and diabetes.

“He went the way he wanted to go,” he said. “It brings peace to me, my brother and sister and my mom that he went quickly. It was probably painless.”

Perez, a native of the Philippines, had been a physician in Port Washington for more than five decades, opening his practice at 126 E. Pier St. in Port Washington in the 

late 1960s, his son said.

He worked out of that office until his death, resisting numerous opportunities to join large medical systems, his son said. When his father died, he said, he had the only solo independent practice in Ozaukee County.

“For years they tried to buy my dad out,” his son said. “They finally gave up. 

“He didn’t want to have anybody be his boss. He loved being his own boss.”

Perez had a robust practice but also served his community. He was a member of the Ozaukee County Board of Health for many years, served as the physician for the Ozaukee County jail for years and was the medical director at Lasata Campus in Cedarburg and Heritage Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center in Port Washington, his son said.

Ralph Luedtke, who served as the administrator of Lasata for 28 years before retiring, said Perez was “so committed, caring and humble.”

“He was on call 24 hours a day,” he said. “Even if he was on vacation and out of the country, he would give us a number and a way to reach him. If there was an emergency, he wanted to be aware of it.

“He cared about the residents. When he came in to do rounds, he didn’t just check them. He would visit with them.”

Perez, Luedtke said, was patient with the residents and their families.

“He hardly ever got mad or frustrated or even raised his voice,” he said. “I never had a family member complain about him. He was professional and caring.”

Perez also served as a flight surgeon with the U.S. Air Force Reserves from 1978 to 2001, when he retired as a colonel. He was deployed to the Middle East during Desert Shield and Desert Storm and at one point was the commander of the 440th Airlift Wing’s hospital in Milwaukee, his son said.

His father was proud of his service, his son said.

“I think that was his way of thanking the U.S. for everything it gave him” he said. “And he loved it. If he could have stayed in longer, there’s no question he would have.”

Perez sometimes melded his duties, Luedtke said, recalling that when Lasata replaced its old hospital beds, which had to be cranked by hand, with electronic ones, Perez arranged to donate them to a facility in the Philippines via an Air Force plane that was making a routine trip there.

“They were happy to have them,” Luedtke said. “They were usable hospital beds, but we couldn’t use them anymore.”

Perez, the oldest of nine children, was born in San Juan, Batangas, Philippines, to Bernardo and Ligaya Malabanan Perez on Sept. 18, 1939.

Medicine was his passion, and he earned a medical degree from Manila Central University in Manila, Philippines. It was there that he met Roseneni Flores, a nursing student he married at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in Quezon City, Philippines on June 21, 1964.

Mrs. Perez came to the U.S. to work in the Chicago area in the mid-1960s, and a year later her husband followed, their son said. 

“When you have the opportunity to come to the U.S. from the Philippines to make a better life for yourself, you jump at it,” his son said.

Perez did his residency at St. Joseph Hospital in Lincoln Park, Chicago, then practiced in Watertown for a short time before moving to Port Washington and opening his own practice.

Perez had a somewhat blunt style that his patients appreciated, his son said.

“He didn’t beat around the bush,” he said. “He said, ‘I’m not going to sugar coat anything. Why do that? I’m going to tell them the truth.’”

He was also loyal to his patients, his son said.

“He loved his patients, and the general practice of medicine was truly a passion for him,” he said. “I think that’s one reason he didn’t want to retire.”

He and his wife settled at their Pierre Lane home, where they raised their three children.

“They loved Port Washington,” his son said of his parents. “They were never going to leave. Port Washington is home.”

In his spare time, Perez played keyboards, particularly the piano, by ear.

“He never took a lesson,” his son said, adding that as a medical student he made ends meet as a jazz pianist in piano bars.

“That was his therapy. He would always play piano when we were home.”

In addition to his wife and children — daughter Christine (Yves) Ghiaï of San Francisco and sons Celestino Perez Jr. of Grafton and Carlo (Mishella) of San Diego — Perez is survived by his grandchildren, Anahita, Aryana and Azita Ghiai, Alexandria, Thailyr and JJ Perez and Daniel, Amelia and Carlo “CJ” Perez.

A funeral service will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 22, at Eernisse Funeral Home, Port Washington, with Father Patrick Wendt officiating.

Visitation will be from 2 p.m. until the service.

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