Despite Early Struggles Dr. Margaret Ng Achieved Dreams
She walks in with the exuberance of a child, wearing Chuck Taylors, offering a “Hello Mommy,” as she turns her attention to her pediatric patient who is equally happy to see her despite any unpleasantries that may loom.
Dr. Margaret Ng (pronounced “ing”) is something of an anomaly. Whether it’s the fact she speaks four languages, sleeps fours hours a night or can recall giving a past tetanus shot without consulting a chart, there’s no question Dr. Ng appears superhuman. Her day begins at 4 a.m., making rounds at the the hospital until 6:30. By 7 a.m., she’s seeing patients in her Coal Grove office, ending her office hours when the last patient walks out, then back to the hospital or charting.
“You know, I breathe and live it,” she admits. “You have to go with what and who you are. The great thing is I like what I do. It’s the making money (or business side) that I don’t like.”
As a sole practitioner, there is hardly opportunity for vacations. She’s passed the burnout stage after 24 years practicing and scoffs at the word retirement. “I may not always do this many hours, but I’ll always see children from daylight to dark.” Her energy, wisdom and caring couldn’t be better suited for her chosen profession. “With children, there is so much hope. I like the challenge of seeing them in all stages of life and feeling like I’ve walked with them.”
Still, deep in the heart of this high energy, tiny statured woman is a calling to do even more.
It’s important to look back at how Margaret Ng became Dr. Ng to understand her drive and vision. Her family fled their native China in the ‘40s to escape the Communist regime. They landed in the Philippines where Ng was born and raised. “We were just above the poverty level. We had one set of clothes, shoes and food to eat. What my parents did make sure we had was a good education.”
In primary school, she attended both a Catholic and the public school at her mother’s insistence. “The Catholic school did not end until 2 p.m. and I had missed two hours of the traditional school, having to catch up on my own. I remember getting made fun of for my clothes and shoes, and I just decided I would study harder and be where I wanted to be someday.”
Life took a turn. At age 10, her father suddenly passed away and her mother followed six months later, likely of grief. “It just kind of shook my spirit. I said, ‘I have to become a doctor.’ Even going to the hospital…the smell killed me, but I knew this is what I had to do.”
Just like that, she was an orphan, but one who would not let the odds overcome her. Her two elder, unmarried siblings raised her and a younger brother. “I grew up overnight. I had to buy groceries and wash clothes. I still sometimes don’t understand why I am here - how I made it. All I did was read, read and read. I still love reading today.”
Fulfilling her own goal and her parents’ wish for her education, she earned her medical degree in the Philippines and would have lived a decent life there as a physician, but something still wasn’t settled within her. That’s when she came to the U.S., later met her husband, set up practice and had a son of her own.
Like the vision she had as a 10-year-old girl of becoming a doctor, she now feeds off a new desire of building an orphanage. There’s nothing formal in the works, but she foresees it on land of the Emmanuel Bible Baptist Church in the Philippines. She has made close acquaintance with the minister’s daughter who is studying at nearby Marietta Bible College.
“Sometimes you know something. It’s just in your heart. It’s not your time. It’s God’s time.”
Until then, Dr. Margaret Ng will continue her labor of love and her epic journey.