My brother Joseph Michael Ong was confirmed with total brain death today, March 15, 2026, after 5 days of being on life support and testing. He is a donor, so we are waiting for after the surgery for him to go through body death and we can give him a proper burial.

How this came about was sudden and really unexpected. Walking down the street, his heart went out of rhythm, causing it to stop and causing instant death. A police officer saw him falling and started cardiac assist for 12 minutes before restarting his heart. To which my brother went to St. Ann’s hospital, and we waited for 5 days of testing and medically induced coma to calm seizures to find out the results stated above.

Joey was 41 years old and lived with my parents his whole life. A very private person who loved to walk everywhere, travel, and loved animals, especially dogs and cats. He grew up with a lot of medical issues with severe asthma and allergies, which kept him from attending school and led to homeschooling in the early to late 90s. Because of his ailments and lack of proper treatment for asthmatic people during this era, he had to drop out of high school as a freshman. Later in his late teen years, he studied and achieved his GED. He was really gifted in math and literature. He loved anime and old school cartoons just like his older brothers.

It’s very somber in the Ong household because we never expected our youngest to pass so young and so sudden. We’re asking for any support to help us give him a proper burial and gain closure to this dark time in our family.

He will be missed, leaving a huge hole in our family's hearts. We can hope one day in the afterlife we will be joined again.

Thank you for your support.