Coronavirus: New York mom unknowingly infects 17 of her kids

PENFIELD, N.Y. — Millions of people have been impacted by the coronavirus, but the gravity of the pandemic has really hit home for a New York woman.

“Like a freight train,” Brittany Jencik told WHAM-TV.

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Jencik, a mother to 18 children, unknowingly infected 17 of them with the coronavirus.

“It’s been a tough month," Jencik told the television station. "It’s been a very tough month.”

Jencik’s family includes several adopted children, so she has a full house. She told WHAM brought the COVID-19 virus to her home five weeks ago but did not realize it at the time.

However, when the symptoms appeared, they hit Jencik with a vengeance.

“I had two days were I was extremely concerned that I was never going to be the same,” Jencik told WHAM.

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The children soon began displaying symptoms, Jencik said.

“It was terrifying. I was a little ahead of them in the timing of it all,” Jencocl told WHAM. "I was as afraid of my life as I had ever been, and not much scares me.”

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The entire family remains in isolation, and Jencik wants to ensure the family home remains free of germs that could be lingering on surfaces. She called a friend, Matt Moreno, who is the CEO of Purify Global, to professionally clean the home.

“We will get dressed up in rubber hazmat suits," Moreno told WHAM. "We put on commercial grade gas masks with a cartridge that’s meant to withstand a nuclear attack.”

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The cleaning process took two days, and the family waited outside in a safe place.

“I needed to know from my mama heart that I was protecting the people I love to the best extent I possibly could," Jencik told WHAM.

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