Jeffrey Leung is a paraprofessional and tech director from P.S. 145 in Manhattan who was infected with COVID in March of 2020 and spent nearly a month in a coma. He joined In Focus along with his principal, Dr. Natalia Russo, to talk about his harrowing experience.

Leung and Russo describe originally thinking parents who wore face masks at the beginning of the pandemic were being alarmist, until Leung collapsed one day and had to be rushed to the hospital with severe COVID symptoms.

Leung experienced kidney failure and doctors gave him only a 10% chance of survival, but he persevered partly by keeping the image of his family and friends in his mind throughout his ordeal.

His school family also pitched in to offer emotional support and communal prayer to Leung and his family, and both he and Dr. Russo were taken aback by the outpouring of support. A year later, Leung is still experiencing residual effects from COVID, but he is recovered enough to take part - along with his principal and friend Dr. Russo - in a NY Road Runners race in Central Park this month to show how far they've come in the last 13 months.