Antelope Valley Press

Carlos Araujo Preza, 51, doctor on the pandemic’s front lines, is dead

- By CLAY RISEN New York Times

When the pandemic hit the Houston area in March, Dr. Carlos Araujo Preza was on the front lines. A pulmonolog­ist with his own practice, he had just been made the director of critical care at HCA Houston Healthcare in Tomball, a northweste­rn suburb.

Araujo was soon working nonstop, sleeping at his hospital and returning home just once a week to get new clothes. After businesses were allowed to reopen in May, he returned to his practice in nearby Woodlands as well, ultimately treating hundreds of COVID patients as the virus raged across the Houston area.

“He’d wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning to get to the hospital for rounds so he could be back at his office when it opened,” his daughter, Andrea Araujo, said.

“He never took a break.”

Despite taking extensive precaution­s, Araujo tested positive for COVID-19 in late October and died Nov. 30. He was 51. The cause was complicati­ons of the disease, Andrea Araujo said.

Carlos Ernesto Araujo Preza was born Dec. 8, 1968, in San Salvador. His father, Carlos Araujo Aleman, was a lawyer. His mother, Ada Del Carmen Preza de Araujo, was a homemaker. Both his parents later joined him in Texas. His father died in 2019.

He graduated from the Universida­d Evangélica de El Salvador and came to the United States in 1994 to conduct a residency in internal medicine at the Staten Island University Hospital. He received further training in pulmonary critical care at Tulane University in New Orleans before moving to the Houston area in 2001.

Two years later he began working at HCA Houston Healthcare Tomball, with a focus on critical pulmonary care — experience that came

in handy when, as the head of critical care, he was tasked with leading his hospital’s response to the pandemic.

“He was always saying he was born for this,” Andrea Araujo said. In May, Araujo pushed his hospital to join a nationwide study to see if plasma from recovered COVID patients could help those still struggling with the disease. Araujo, who oversaw the hospital’s participat­ion in the study, released his first patient to receive the treatment a week later, a milestone that made him optimistic about beating the disease.

The study, run by the Mayo Clinic, has yet to provide conclusive results.

Araujo’s first marriage, to Lorena Delacotera, ended in divorce. Along with his daughter and mother, he is survived by his son, Carlos Ernesto Araujo Jr.; his sister, Ada Mayer; a stepbrothe­r, Carlos Antonio Araujo Grimaldi; and a stepsister, Roxana Herrera.

 ?? PHOTO COURTESY OF NEW YORK TIMES ?? Dr. Carlos Araujo Preza was a pulmonolog­ist born in El Salvador who treated hundreds of COVID-19 patients, but tested positive for the disease in late October. Araujo died Nov. 30 at age 51.
PHOTO COURTESY OF NEW YORK TIMES Dr. Carlos Araujo Preza was a pulmonolog­ist born in El Salvador who treated hundreds of COVID-19 patients, but tested positive for the disease in late October. Araujo died Nov. 30 at age 51.

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