MIAMI — A father and son who left Cuba and became doctors in the U.S. have died of the coronavirus.
Dr. Carlos Vallejo, 57, and his father, Dr. Jorge Vallejo, 89, were hospitalized on Father's Day. Carlos' son, Charlie says they died five weeks apart. Their family says neither of them had pre-existing conditions.
Dr. Jorge Vallejo fled Fidel Castro's reign almost 55 years ago, packing his wife and two young sons into a torpedo boat with other refugees for the treacherous journey to Florida.
They became stranded at sea, and the U.S. Coast Guard towed the boat into Key West, where Vallejo became a prominent OB-GYN and the patriarch of a family of Cuban American doctors.
The younger boy on that voyage, Carlos Vallejo, became a doctor of internal medicine who was treating elderly people with COVID-19.
Dr. Carlos Vallejo had been working on the front lines of the pandemic when he was hospitalized. His daughter, Gisselle Vellejo, 31, told the Miami Herald most of his patients were elderly nursing home residents.
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