Philip Kahn, 100, Dies; Spanish Flu Took His Twin a Century Ago – The New York Times

This obituary is fragment of a series about these who enjoy died in the coronavirus pandemic. Be taught about others here.

Philip Kahn believed that history repeats itself, a truism that has hit dwelling for his household in extra special trend.

His twin brother, Samuel, died as an dinky one at some stage in the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-19. Now Mr. Kahn himself has died of the coronavirus. He used to be 100.

“He used to be a extremely healthy 100,” Warren Zysman, with out a doubt one of his grandsons, acknowledged in a cell phone interview. “He watched the suggestions, he used to be fully attentive to the pandemic. When he started coughing, he knew he might per chance perhaps enjoy it, and he knew the irony of what used to be happening.”

Mr. Zysman added: “And he would enlighten, ‘Warren my boy, I urged you history constantly repeats itself. We would were significantly higher prepared for this.’”

Philip Kahn, a decorated World War II outdated school, died on April 17 at his dwelling in Westbury, N.Y., on Long Island. “Tests confirmed he had Covid-19,” his doctor, Sandeep Jauhar, a cardiologist in nearby New Hyde Park, wrote on Fb.

“Stunning man, wry wit, a form soul,” Dr. Jauhar added. “His twin brother succumbed in a undeniable pandemic, the Spanish flu … 101 years ago.”

The potentialities of siblings dying a century apart in international pandemics seem previous a ways flung, however the Kahns are now no longer the only real ones. Selma Ryan, 96, who died of the virus in San Antonio on April 14, lost her older sister, Esther, to the Spanish Flu 102 years earlier, in step with News4SA, a local television location. The sisters never knew every assorted.

Philip Felix Kahn did now no longer know his brother either. The twins, whose father ran a bakery on the Upper West Aspect of Manhattan, were born on Dec. 15, 1919, additionally in Manhattan, while the Spanish flu used to be serene raging. The boys were honest a pair of weeks aged when Samuel died.

“He had this stage of sadness about it because, while he used to be born a twin, he never received to journey being a twin,” acknowledged Mr. Zysman, who’s himself a twin.

“He constantly urged me how exhausting the loss of his brother used to be for his fogeys,” he added, “and that he carried this void with him his total lifestyles.”

Philip served in an Military aerial unit in the Pacific at some stage in World War II, taking fragment in the Strive against of Iwo Jima and later in firebombing raids over Japan. He additionally helped create aerial surveys after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He earned two bronze stars.

After the war, he worked as an electrical foreman and helped blueprint the World Commerce Center and the first New York City blood bank. He used to be constantly energetic, enjoying swimming and dancing. He would even dance on curler skates.

To boot to to Mr. Zysman, Mr. Kahn is survived by his daughter, Lynn Zysman; five assorted grandchildren; and 6 big-grandchildren.

Mr. Zysman acknowledged that his grandfather had loved to focus on referring to the war and history, and that nearly about every chronicle he urged started with his brother, Samuel, and ended with the the same point: It used to be significant to be taught from journey. Toward the end of his lifestyles he spoke usually of Samuel.

Mr. Zysman’s wife, Dr. Corey Karlin-Zysman, who has been treating coronavirus patients spherical the clock at Long Island Jewish Scientific Center, called the brothers “pandemic bookends.”

The Spanish Flu killed 50 million folks worldwide; so a ways, the coronavirus has killed 191,000.