By Alex P. Vidal
“If any of you cry at my funeral, I’ll never speak to you again!” — Stan Laurel
By the time this article comes out in the Philippines, Leonidas “Leo” Dumagat’s body may have been burned.
The retired veteran broadcaster, who succumbed to lung cancer April 17, was scheduled for cremation at the Fresh Pond Crematory in Middle Village, New York City.
His body will be brought to St. Bartholomew Church also in Elmhurst for a necrological mass at 9:30 o’clock in the morning.
The Legion of Mary, where Leo was an active member, helped arrange for the church services and other prayer schedules.
The group is led as president by Delenia Gulle and coordinator Luz Panes, a native of Passi City in the Philippines.
“Because of the pandemic, we can’t bring his ashes yet to the Philippines,” revealed his wife Ofelia, 71, who was beside Leo, 82, in the bed when the very popular Ilonggo broadcast journalist breathed his last at past 5 o’clock in the morning on Saturday (April 17 U.S. time).
Leo’s body was brought for open viewing from 1 to 7 p.m. at the Gerard J. Neufeld Funeral Homes in Elmhurst, Queens, New York City.
Only their Brooklyn-based daughter, Lea Mae, 40, was with them in their apartment in Woodside, Queens when Leo passed away.
Their other son, Leo, 43, was in the Philippines.
Efforts to bring him to the U.S. to be at his father’s bedside proved futile due to so many pandemic-related travel restrictions, Ofelia said.
“Leo, who probably knew his end was near, was only bed-ridden for two days before he left us,” narrated Ofelia, who was 25 years old when she married the then 36-year-old budding broadcaster from Ilog, Kabankalan, Negros Occidental in 1976.
“Leo really did not want to give us a hard time.”
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The former manager of dyBQ Radyo Budyong and anchor of the record-breaking household program, “Kapehan sa Budyong”, in the 1990s was under the hospice care weeks before he died, Ofelia said.
Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient’s pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life.
Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life by reducing pain and suffering.
“The (hospice) nurse had warned me a day before that anytime Leo could go anytime,” Ofelia recalled. “She was right because the warning came on Friday and Leo left us on Saturday.”
Leo had been struggling for three years after being diagnosed with lung cancer stage four, Ofelia revealed.
They had to cut short their 2019 visit in the Philippines after Leo was confined for four days at the Riverside Hospital in Bacolod City, where he spent his 80th birthday, due to pneumonia.
“He was already struggling (from his ailment) but was very brave. Leo had a tremendous fighting spirit and he really fought so hard until the end,” enthused Ofelia, a school teacher in La Carlota City, Negros Occidental when she met Leo, who was then a liaison of Mayor Luis Jalandoni.
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The first telltale sign of Leo’s gradual decline came when he was admitted to the NYU Langone Health, a medical center, on February 16, 2021 for hyponatremia, or very low level of sodium in his blood.
A low sodium level reportedly has many causes, including consumption of too many fluids, kidney failure, heart failure, cirrhosis, and use of diuretics.
Symptoms reportedly result from brain dysfunction.
Leo was treated by Dr. Douglas Kondziolka, New York City’s five-star rated neurosurgeon for safety, quality, and patient experience.
“Leo spent his 82nd birthday on February 21 in his hospital bed. In his nine days in the hospital, he was uneasy and full of anxiety because he didn’t want to be alone. Because of the pandemic, visitors weren’t allowed to stay longer and my daughter and I had a difficult time to watch him,” Ofelia sobbed.
Dr. Kondziolka performed the gamma knife surgery on Leo, while Dr. Mitchell Bernstein performed the robotic surgery.
He was released from the hospital on February 25.
Ofelia said Leo was able to take his oath as U.S. citizen in winter last year.
“If he were not a U.S. citizen, we would have found it difficult to avail of all the excellent medical services for Leo,” she said.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)
