Coronavirus Test Result Lifts Limbo For Brick Family

BRICK, NJ — On Monday, in a small graveside service, Sue Cranga will be laid to rest at last.

Her husband, Joe, finally received the results on Friday of the coronavirus test performed on his 76-year-old wife after she died March 21 at Ocean Medical Center. "She was negative," Joe said. "We will bury her Monday."

The results ended what had been nearly a weeklong ordeal that forced Joe's daughters, Jen Pascarella and Patty Nucci, to stay at a distance, and left them all wondering when they would be able to say at least a brief goodbye.

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Sue had a fever of 100 degrees when Joe brought her to the emergency room on March 21 after she vomited blood. She slumped over in the car during the 7-minute ride to Ocean Medical Center, and despite efforts of the emergency room nurses and doctors, died within an hour, Joe said.

Because of the fever, the hospital tested her for the coronavirus.

"They told me two to three days for results," Joe said Wednesday night, after he was forced to postpone her burial because the hospital had not released her body to O'Brien Funeral Home. Read more: Delayed Coronavirus Result Puts Grieving Brick Family In Limbo

Ocean Medical Center officials deferred comment on procedures and testing timelines to the state Department of Health.

Kevin O'Brien, the funeral director at O'Brien Funeral Home, said when a person dies of an infectious disease, there are separate procedures and certain paperwork that must be completed by the hospital.

"That paperwork has to follow the deceased wherever they go, to the funeral home and to the cemetery too," he said.

Donna Leusner, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, said the state's chief medical examiner's office has set guidance that when hospitals are awaiting coronavirus test results on someone who has died, "if there is an established diagnosis (e.g. pneumonia), the case can be released and the treating physician should list the cause of death as 'Pending COVID-19 testing,' with a natural manner of death."

The death certificate would need to be amended once test results are received.

The turnaround time for testing by commercial labs has generally been three to five days; they are generally testing hundreds if not thousands of tests at once, Leusner said. Testing turnaround by hospitals varies, she said. The state gives tests involving health care workers and first responders higher priority for processing, but said how hospitals handle their testing is up to each hospital. Read more: NJ Coronavirus Updates: Here's What You Need To Know

While he waited for the test results on Sue, Joe was mourning his wife of 51 years in isolation because he didn't want to risk his daughters being exposed. The negative test result eliminated that obstacle for all of them.

"We are heading down to be with him today," Jen said briefly Friday morning.

The service on Monday still will be limited because of the state ban on gatherings of more than 10 people. A fuller service that includes Sue's six grandchildren and friends and family all over will happen once the statewide ban on gatherings is lifted, Joe said.

But Monday, Joe Cranga will lay his wife of 51 years to rest. And their daughters, who love him as fiercely as they love their mom, will be by his side to say goodbye.

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