Ayman El-Sheikh, MD, chief of hematology and oncology at Dayton (Ohio) Children's Hospital, has died from complications of COVID-19, the hospital said in a Facebook post.
Dr. El-Sheikh died Feb. 3.
"He acquired the illness and was hospitalized during a trip overseas in December," the hospital posted. "At his family's request, we helped transfer him to a local hospital for further care. Unfortunately, he did not recover and never returned to Dayton Children's."
Dr. El-Sheikh, who was board-certified in pediatrics and pediatric hematology and oncology, began working at Dayton Children's in 2015.
He was an expert in blood and marrow transplants, tuberous sclerosis, neurofibromatosis and neurocutaneous disorder, according to his biography. He also was a member of the Scientific Committee for the Children's Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium, a research program involving several institutions that focused on childhood brain tumors.
"Dr. El-Sheikh championed new protocols while at Dayton Children's which made treatment easier for patients. He also drove change and advancement as a champion for our partnership with [Columbus, Ohio-based] Nationwide Children's Hospital in a bone marrow transplant collaboration to ensure our patients and families can still receive care close to home," said Dayton Children's.
"We will always hold his memory close," the hospital said.
Before joining Dayton Children's, Dr. El-Sheikh served as the director of the pediatric blood and marrow transplant program, the institutional principal investigator for the Children's Oncology Group and the medical director of the inpatient ward at the University of Iowa Children's Hospital in Iowa City. He also taught at Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa.