Mario Mayorga Jr. & his parents die from coronavirus: 3 members of a Miami-Dade family die from COVID-19 within weeks of each other.
The coronavirus has claimed the lives of a Florida father, mother & son within weeks of each other- the deaths come as a frontline worker and his parents had been preparing to celebrate their 50th anniversary together.
Mario Mayorga Jr. — who worked for a service that cleaned Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Miami — was diagnosed with COVID-19 in mid-March and his parents and sister tested positive about a week later, NBC Miami reports.
His father, Mario Mayorga, 72, died on April 10. The mother, Esperanza Mayorga, also 72, succumbed to the virus nine days later. Mario Jr. died Sunday.
Daughter Violeta Mayorga, 45, also caught the bug, and is recovering at the family’s Miami Dade home, quarantined from her young son, family members said.
Nicaraguan family had immigrated to the US to live the American dream:
‘They all lived together so her entire world has been flipped upside down at this point,’ said cousin Marcela Lastre, adding that the family doesn’t know where Mario Jr. was infected.
“With the passing of three family members you can just imagine how difficult it’s been,’ Lastre told via NBC Miami.
The elderly couple and their daughter were tested after Mario Jr. was hospitalized with severe symptoms that required bypass surgery and a ventilator, Lastre told ABC News.
But their tests all came back negative — the first time.
They then got retested, and were positive for the virus and had to be hospitalized, said Lastre.
‘It was about three to five days from one person showing symptoms to the next one,’ Lastre added. ‘We thought they would all show symptoms at the same time.’
Everyone but Violeta’s condition declined so quickly that Lastre said she wasn’t sure if Mario Jr. was ever told that his parents had died before his own passing.
‘Between the ventilator and the sedatives, I don’t know how much he was aware of in the last few weeks,’ the relative said.
Mario Jr. was well-known in South Florida, attending Coral Park Senior High School, and was a graduate of Barry University. His loved ones said he was charismatic and a joy to be around.
‘Mario was amazing. He would help in any way. He enjoyed traveling. He was just very social,’ said Lastre.
The family had immigrated to the US from Nicaragua in the 1980s. Mario Sr. had worked in a funeral home and Esperanza worked as a nanny for many years before becoming a homemaker, according to Lastre.
‘They were grateful to be here and become US citizens,’ she said. ‘This has been a family who has been together for so long and built so much together.’
As of Thursday morning, Florida recorded 1,218 coronavirus deaths, with cases surpassing 33,193, with the death toll growing by 83, the highest in 1 day on Wednesday.
