Family of Six Catches COVID-19, Single Mother Runs Out of Paid Time Off

Juggling a household of five kids can be a challenge, let alone adding the coronavirus to the mix. That's what happened to Jessica Webber, a single mother who caught the virus, along with her kids.

She tested positive for COVID-19 on Nov. 14. She's now negative, but the symptoms continue to linger.

"I’m still experiencing symptoms, I was really sick for about 10 days and then I started feeling better, and I thought I was on the upswing for about three days and then just went back downhill. I've tested negative since, but the symptoms just they just won't leave," explained Webber.

The mother of five was scared because she didn't know who would be able to take care of the kids since she wasn't feeling well and no one could go inside since they were all positive.

"It was really just a miracle kind of grace of God I think. They (the kids) did not start getting sick until I started feeling better, and that little window where I thought I was on the upswing, is when they started one-by-one getting diarrhea rashes, nausea, sore throats all of the symptoms and it was about four days long, that they went through it and that's when I was able to take care of them," said Webber.

Her 11-year-old daughter, Brisa recently tested negative on Saturday after battling the coronavirus for 12 days.

“I had a rash on my face and it kind of like burned, and then I had a stomachache and I couldn’t really eat anything because it made me feel kind of nauseous. I was really tired most of the time, so I just slept a lot," explained her daughter.

The kids age in ranges from 10-to-15, Webber said Brisa had it the worse.

"Try to wear your mask most of the time because getting COVID is not fun," said the sixth-grader.

Webber exhausted all of her paid time off. She went back to work on Monday, but on Wednesday said she has taken a leave of absence from her job at a blood center because the after-effects continue to impact her work.

“To me, it's not the breathing, that's so bad. It's more of the heart. When your heart rate it's going up and down, up and down and my legs are shaky and I'm lightheaded. I just felt like I was about to pass out. You really can't be in that kind of condition and draw blood from people, and it's not safe for a donor," said Webber.

The family created a Go Fund Me account to help pay the medical bills and her mortgage.

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*Map locations are approximate, central locations for the city and are not meant to indicate where actual infected people live.

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