Four years ago, Dr. Michael Jong hung up his stethoscope. After a medical career spanning three decades in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, he decided to retire from Labrador Grenfell Health. That was until April. Jong decided to get relicensed as a physician and jumped back into the fray to help whatever way he could fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I was concerned that if it started to spread here the hospitals would get overwhelmed,” he said. “I felt it was the right thing to do, I just wanted to help.”
Jong said he had to do it, needed to do it and had spoken to his family about it first, and they had fully supported him.
He had been following the coronavirus concerns since 2019, reading whatever papers and research he could find. Being retired, he said, gave him a lot more time to read.
He gave information sessions on the virus in the weeks following his return to practice and tried his best to educate people on the benefits of social distancing and wearing masks.
So far, there haven’t been many cases in Labrador and there hasn’t been an active case in months. Jong has since decided to go back into retirement but said he would be ready again if needed.
The pandemic isn’t over yet, he said, and he is concerned about what would happen if it were to hit Labrador, especially the coastal regions.
Health, fitness and Labrador
A big advocate of physical fitness, Jong is also a marathon runner, which has taken him all over the world. He’s competed in marathons from Boston to Berlin but the COVID-19 pandemic has hampered his running efforts this year, with many major marathons not going ahead. He is currently ranked eighth in the 2019 Wanda Abbott World Marathon races for his age group and is scheduled to race at the postponed London marathon on Oct, 3 2021.
When he retired in 2017, he was the vice-president of medical services for Labrador Grenfell Health, responsible for all medical services in Labrador, and was a professor at Memorial University.
He came to Labrador by way of St. Anthony, and London and Malaysia before that. He fell in love with the landscape and the people of the region, eventually meeting his now-wife Cathy and raising their children there. His son is currently doing his residency as a doctor in the Labrador Health Centre in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
Being of Chinese descent and speaking English with an accent, Jong said he had encountered racism most places he’d lived and worked, but he didn’t find that in Labrador. The people accepted him with open arms and made him feel at home.
Working as a physician in a place like Labrador is a privilege, Jong said, and comes with challenges.
Over the years he’s spent a lot of time on the land with local Indigenous people, both the Inuit and the Innu, and tried to learn everything he could from them.
“When I first got here, I thought I knew everything,” he said with a laugh. “Talking to the people, hearing their knowledge and what works for them and what doesn’t, I learned so much.”
Before he retired, Jong used to take new doctors in the region on trips out onto the land and on the annual walks Innu Elder Tshaukuesh "Elizabeth" Penashue used to take to Muskrat Falls. It’s important, he said, for people coming into the area to understand where they are and its significance.
