N.J. EMT, 24, Dies After Contracting COVID-19

NJ Advance Media Group, Edison, N.J.

Kevin Leiva wasn’t supposed to get the email that would kick off his career.

One day while wandering campus at Passaic County Community College, Leiva checked his inbox and saw a message for an EMT certification program. They were looking for a student majoring in biology or medicine who could earn a scholarship to pursue a job in emergency medical services.

But Leiva was a law student. He went to the interview, where administrators were just as confused as he was as to how he got the message. He got the scholarship anyway.

“He always called his discovery of EMS an ‘act of God,’” said Marina Leiva, his wife.

On Tuesday, Leiva, 24, who served as an EMT at North Bergen and for Saint Clare’s Dover hospital, died from complications with the coronavirus. He was the second EMT who served the Passaic area for Saint Clare’s to succumb to complications with the coronavirus in less than two weeks. Last week, Israel Tolentino Jr., 33, who was also a Passaic firefighter and and EMT for Saint Clare’s, died from complications with the coronavirus.

It was always clear that Leiva wanted to help others, his wife said. Helping her through difficult times and in her transition moving from Wisconsin to New Jersey, Marina knew that Kevin was just built to take care of those around him.

From the moment Leiva won the scholarship, he dove head first into being an EMT, said Leiva. He started volunteering for the Moonachie Ambulance Service before eventually working at Monmouth Ocean Hospital Service Corporation (MONOC) and Saint Clare’s, she said.

Even after a nearly fatal ambulance crash while volunteering for Moonachie, Leiva refused to stop.

One of Leiva’s closest friends, Kara Connolly, was partners with him for two years at Saint Clare’s. The two became close friends, talking every day and watching each other’s backs in the field. She remembers the funny guy who would do whatever he could to help others.

“He was all about EMS and helping people,” she said. “In the job, patients and his coworkers alike, he did everything for anybody. It didn’t matter.”

Like it has with countless others, the coronavirus came abruptly for Leiva. On March 20, he first complained of a migraine and feeling dizzy, said Leiva. He remembered hearing that his friend Tolentino had also felt similar symptoms.

Leiva’s symptoms worsened as he heard that Tolentino, who he and Marina called “Izzy,” was growing more and more sick and had tested positive for the coronavirus. By March 27, his 24th birthday, Leiva could barely breathe, his wife said.

Leiva was upset that he would be taken out of the fight against the pandemic and wouldn’t be riding alongside his crew, his wife said. The next day was the last time Leiva talked to her husband.

“He was put on a ventilator the next day, the 28th, and he never woke up,” said Leiva, holding back tears.

On Friday night, fellow EMTs held a candlelight vigil for the man they all knew as intelligent, sarcastic and selfless at all times. It was a final farewell to a young man whose career helping people was set off by an email and a twinge of realization that it was where he was meant to be.

“He was one of the most honorable people I have ever met,” said Leiva. “He didn’t just think of it as a job. He thought of it as a duty.”