Maria is first and foremost Franki’s mom. She runs an anesthesia staffing company full time, volunteers at AI DuPont Hospital for Children, and serves on its Family Advisory Committee. She also sits on the state of Delaware’s Children with Complex Medical Conditions Committee for Medicaid and on the Governor’s Advisory Board.
“Her being home [from school] was no way of living anymore.”
Maria: So in the winter, I think it was winter. I think it was the winter she started to go back to school. School I think opened a couple days a week. And actually it was in um, it was early on in COVID. They started that.
Johana: Oh, you mean in class?
Maria: Yeah. Back in class. Yep.
Johana: So talk a little bit about that and how that was working.
Maria: For us, it actually was a godsend. Because now we can start, we can at least give her some sort of socialization, we can put her back in. So we asked the school how many kids will be in the classroom? What is your protection? What are you guys doing for this? Franki will not wear a mask. So we’ve tried, but she won’t wear a mask. And I think it’s just from everything being done to her face and having so many things. You know, she was trached, she was vented, she had the tubes in for so long. She doesn’t want anything on her face. So she won’t wear a mask. And we had to say she’s not going to wear a mask, what are we going to do? And they said, well, we’re going to encourage her to wear a mask. That’s fine. You can encourage her to wear a mask. But we weighed the pros and cons of it and we opted to send her with the risks because her being home was no way of living anymore. Her being stuck in, you know, a house with just two people, it wasn’t working anymore. It wasn’t so you can go to school will still do the wash your hands, wash your face, clean your nose out and take precautions, you know, don’t let anybody sick near her, everybody else has masks on. So she should be, you know, okay. Early on her nurse did get COVID. One of her nurses got COVID.