'I Remember Him With That Smile': Beloved Phoenix Doctor Dies Of COVID-19 At 99
Patients knew José Gabriel López-Plascencia as "the doctor that served the poor." He spent over 60 years caring for low-income families left out of the healthcare system in Phoenix.
In June, Marcel Lopez and his cousins set up a Zoom video call to say goodbye to their grandfather. Retired physician, José Gabriel López-Plascencia — Dr. López for short — was near death at his home in Phoenix. He was unable to speak, but he let his grandchildren know he was listening.
"Every time we talked to him, he'd kick his leg and move his arms to let us know he was hearing us," Marcel says. As they sang his favorite song "," he noticed over the video call that his grandfather started crying. "I would've loved to have been there holding his hand, just to see him one last time."
