What a Family That Lost 5 to the Virus Wants You to Know

Black Lives Matter

FREEHOLD, N.J. — Each morning they awake with fingers curled inward, stiffened like claws.




At least 19 other family members contracted the virus, and those who survived Covid-19 did not emerge unscathed.


“This ain’t over,” Mr. Fusco said of the pandemic on a recent afternoon in the backyard of his home in Freehold, N.J. “This ain’t over in the least bit.”




Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is conducting research that involves evaluating the DNA of the surviving and deceased members of the large Italian-American family for genetic clues. DNA from those who died will be retrieved from hairbrushes, a toothbrush, a blood sample and tissue from an unrelated gallbladder surgery.


“We know another wave is going to come,” Ms. Fusco said. “It’s inevitable. Whatever will help this world is all I care about.”



On March 13, Rita Fusco Jackson, 56, became the second person to die of Covid-19 in New Jersey, which has since recorded 14,992 deaths, making it No. 2 in the nation behind New York for virus-related fatalities.




The precise source of the extended family’s infection is unclear, said Mr. Fusco, a horse owner like his father and brothers who had spent time in the weeks beforehand with both brothers who died. He recalls waking up feeling “beat up” the morning after the dinner, which was held at the house where his mother lived with three of his siblings and their families.


“When I was leaving the hospital, the doctor said, ‘You don’t realize the debt of gratitude the world owes your family,’” said Mr. Fusco, the father of three children aged 10 to 18.




With four people already dead, two on ventilators and a sister hospitalized and receiving oxygen, Ms. Fusco emerged as a ferocious advocate, even as she feared for her own daughter, Alexandra, who is 12 and was born with a serious health condition, congenital diaphragmatic hernia.



ImageA photograph of the Fusco children and their parents, Grace and Vincenzo, from 1980.
Credit…Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

The family held a four-person funeral on April 1. They remain anguished that the two siblings who were on ventilators at the time were not there and are planning a memorial celebration and burial after a full Mass in early August.




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When her husband awoke on Easter Sunday, she asked that he not be immediately told of the deaths. Once he was stronger, she was allowed a visit to tell him in person.



“Like it didn’t happen,” Ms. Reid said. “It’s just they’re not here.”

Dwelling on the past, she said, is a luxury she does not have. “I’ve got to move on,” said Ms. Reid, who, along with her husband and daughter, shares a house with Joe’s family. “I’ve got a young daughter.”





Much about the recovery from Covid-19 is unknown, said Dr. Laurie G. Jacobs, chairwoman of the Department of Medicine at Hackensack University Medical Center, which is setting up a clinic for patients recovering from Covid-19 to better understand, track and treat their varied needs.

“There’s a desperation for answers,” Dr. Jacobs said.

Mr. Fusco said he found the seeming absence of uniform guidance for doctors treating patients recovering from Covid-19 frustrating. His doctor has ordered a battery of tests, he said, but his sister’s has not.



“She said, ‘Don’t worry. I’m going to be OK,’” Elizabeth Fusco recalled. “Tell everyone I love them.”



“It’s not the way it’s supposed to go.”

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