OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. – An Osceola County family is calling on everyone to take the coronavirus seriously after COVID-19 spread and took the life of a loved one.


What You Need To Know

  • Family members get infected with coronavirus

  • 1 family member died after lungs were severely damaged

  • Family now warning others to take the virus seriously

Three members of the Sosa family — Nancy Batista, Zobeida Sosa, and Juan Carlos Sosa — were infected with the coronavirus mid-June, but Juan Carlos, 57, got the worst of it.

“They put him in a ventilator because he can’t breathe on his own anymore,” his sister Zobeida Sosa said.

“It’s a medically-induced coma because of the ventilator,” his niece, Nancy Batista, said.

They believe he got infected with COVID-19 at his job in Celebration and passed it on to them during a family gathering on June 17.

“We were celebrating his birthday,” Zobeida said. “He always loved to see his family together.”

Three days after his party was when Juan Carlos was put on a ventilator at Celebration Hospital. The family couldn't visit him in the hospital and don’t know his condition.

“This disease is awful. It doesn’t allow you to be with your loved ones,” Zobeida said, crying.

“It’s so hard to see if someone can turn on their phone, or if someone can pass the message that he can wake up hoping that if he hears our voices he’ll wake up” Batista said.

Juan Carlos Sosa died Sunday, August 30, according to Batista, his niece.

She said he beat COVID-19, but his lungs were severely damaged, so he had to remain in a coma with a breathing tube. 

Doctors told the family he needed a lung transplant. 

He left behind a wife and children and was a beloved member of his Osceola County community. He was a janitor at Celebration Middle School.

An online crowdfunding site has been set up to help his family.

The CDC reports Hispanic hospitalization rates are four times that of white patients.

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