New Jersey Family Hit Hard by Coronavirus
One New Jersey family has been disproportionately affected by the spread of COVID-19. Four members of the Fusco family have died from the virus, and three others were hospitalized. (1, 2)
Two weeks before, on Tuesday, March 3, members of the family gathered for a large dinner at the home of Grace Fusco, 73. Grace, who lived in Freehold, NJ, was the mother of 11 children and had 27 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for 50 people to come together for a family dinner. (1, 3)
“A party to most people was a regular dinner to them,” Roseann Paradiso Fodera, the family lawyer, told The New York Times. Paradiso Fodera is also Grace’s first cousin. (1, 3)
In the days after the March 3 dinner at Grace’s house, her oldest child, Rita Fusco Jackson, 56, started experiencing shortness of breath. The same week, her brother, Vincent, 53, thought he had the flu. On Monday, March 9, he was admitted to the hospital. (2)
Members of the family continued to fall ill. Grace and five of her children, Rita, 56, Carmine, 56, Antonia, 55, Joseph, 49, and Maria, 43, were all admitted to the hospital with the same symptoms on Tuesday, March 10. Carmine, the eldest son, lived in Pennsylvania and received treatment at a hospital there. The rest were admitted to CentraState Medical Center in Freehold. (3)
Family Gets Tested for Coronavirus
The next day, the Fuscos learned that family friend John Brennan had died from the coronavirus in another New Jersey hospital, becoming the state’s first COVID-19-related death. Brennan and Carmine were both horse trainers and close business associates. A mutual friend who had had contact with Brennan attended the Fusco family dinner on March 3. (1, 3)
After the Fuscos learned of the connection, the family asked doctors to test their hospitalized family members for the novel coronavirus. That Friday and Saturday, 19 other family members were tested for COVID-19. They are staying quarantined in their homes until they know the results. (3)
Rita’s daughter, Grace, 30, was tested at a different facility than the rest of her family members. She got her results back in two days and learned that she is positive for the virus, although she is not showing any symptoms. Grace is pregnant. (3)
Four New Jersey Family Members Lost
Matriarch Grace passed away on the night of Wednesday, March 18. Her son, Carmine, died earlier that day, five days after his older sister, Rita, passed away. (1, 3)
A few hours before her mother died, Grace’s fifth child, Bridget Fusco Betlow, 52, told PEOPLE, “I am numb, I don’t believe what is going on. I am sitting here with my mother’s rosary that she gave me the last time she visited me and praying, saying, ‘God help me, give us some kind of answer.’” (3)
Grace was extremely ill before her death and did not know that her two eldest children had passed away. Before passing away, Grace was on a ventilator to help her breathe. Paradiso Fodera reported that another one of Grace’s children, Vincent, died on Thursday. (1)
It is unclear why the novel coronavirus has affected this family so greatly. To their knowledge, “no one had an underlying medical condition,” Paradiso Fodera told PEOPLE. (3)
Frustration with Slow Coronavirus Testing
With some of their relatives still in the hospital, the Fusco family anxiously awaits the results of their coronavirus tests. They didn’t learn that Rita had tested positive until after her death. (1, 3)
“They need for this test to get done and get processed, so we know who has it, so we can go together and mourn together in my mother’s house,” Bridget Fusco Betlow explained to PEOPLE. (3)
“If they’re not on a respirator, they’re quarantined,” Paradiso Fodera said to The New York Times. “It is so pitiful. They can’t even mourn the way you would.” (3)
Dr. James Matera, chief medical officer of CentraState Medical Center, said that officials are analyzing the medical histories of the patients from the Fusco family. They want to learn why the disease was so widespread in this one family. (3)
New Jersey’s state health commissioner, Judith M. Persichilli, warned in a press briefing that even family events are not currently safe. “I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to take personal responsibility and to avoid even small gatherings,” she said. (1)
