Young family faces financial ruin trying to protect baby from Covid

by



[ad_1]

Every second, they fear that in trying to protect their youngest child from the pandemic, they may lose their homes and hurt their other children. And that may not yet be enough.

“Is it better to stay home or is that going to end up putting us in a homeless shelter where she is more at risk?” Garcia said of her 3-year-old, Brandi.

Fear is nothing new to the young couple, as Brandi suffers from an extremely rare metabolic disorder that requires round-the-clock care and makes her vulnerable to any type of virus.

She is already a walking miracle. Most children with his disease do not live longer than a year.

But the pandemic has made it even more difficult to keep her alive. Garcia and Lusk quit their jobs in April to stay home to care for their children and reduce the risk of the coronavirus entering their home.

They are now in debt of several thousand dollars and face eviction at the end of the month.

Brandi’s parents are like so many people with a vulnerable family member who have made huge sacrifices to protect them for months and months – and still watch several weeks as Covid-19 continues to spread.

Brandi sits between Elijah and Isabella. Their parents fear that there is no danger for any of them to play with friends.

But it’s hard to explain this to Brandi’s brother and sister who can’t safely go to school or even be with other kids. Young friends cling to the railings of their apartment and call Isabella, 5, and Elijah, 6, out to the nearby playground. But it’s too risky to say yes.

“We try to explain to them,” Garcia, 29, said. “They’re like, ‘Oh, well I was good today. I did not do anything wrong. “It’s like, I know you haven’t done anything wrong. It’s just … you can’t go out.”

Brandi suffers from carnitine acylcarnitine translocase (CACT) deficiency, a serious condition where her body cannot use certain types of fat for energy. She has to be fed through a tube into her stomach every few hours and is on a long list of expensive drugs.

Brandi, here in intensive care as a baby, has already exceeded expectations.

His body has almost no reserve to fight a virus.

“Any acute illness could be fatal for her,” said Dr. Luis Umana, a pediatric genetics and metabolism specialist at Children’s Health in Dallas and an assistant professor at UT Southwestern.

“Covid is so contagious and so widespread, it’s at the top of our list of things that she could easily contract,” said Umana, who is Brandi’s doctor. “For the rest, I mean, she’s getting the vaccine right now. We don’t have a coronavirus vaccine yet – at least available.”

Covid-19 is increasingly asking non-profit organizations. Here are three ways you can help this Giving Tuesday

Umana said less than 1 in 250,000 babies are born with CACT deficiency and treatment requires “considerable effort” even under normal circumstances. “She’ll never really be out of the woods,” he says. “At any point in her life, something could go wrong, and that could be all for her.

Families like Brandi’s found themselves in a “dead end” during the pandemic, Umana observed. “They should take the risk (of working) or not be able to provide for their basic needs.”

And while Umana believes Brandi could benefit from the coronavirus vaccines which are now seeking approvals, Lusk and Garcia are reluctant to commit until they see how children with similar needs are affected.

Days before Christmas … and eviction

Garcia quit his factory job in April, and Lusk quit a home health care job around the same time. The family gets by on $ 414 per month in unemployment benefits plus $ 305 in food stamps. Medicaid helps pay for most of Brandi’s medications and treatments, as well as home nursing care for up to 16 hours a day.

Brandi's many drug needs are primarily covered by Medicaid.

The family say they are about nine months behind on rent and $ 2,000 behind on utilities. The only reason their lights are always on is because Brandi has a medical condition that requires electricity to power her feed pump. “I sold almost everything in my house to try to raise money, to pay a bill, to pay partial bills, to do whatever we can,” said Lusk, 28.

The young couple are clearly distressed when they mention their children are asking for Christmas. But they only focus on another day in December – the last, when they say they fear losing their home.

“We don’t even think about Christmas presents,” Garcia said. “We are thinking of a place to stay”

“They’re not going to have Christmas,” Lusk added in a neutral tone. “They have nothing.”

Isabella and Elijah cannot go to school or play with other children, so they are not at risk of exposing Brandi to Covid-19.

Dallas County has seen a dramatic increase in Covid-19 cases over the past month, as in other major cities in Texas. The couple said they looked for work they could do from home, but without receiving a formal education, they failed.

With no family able to support them financially or physically, Garcia and Lusk’s worst fear is being evicted, moving to a homeless shelter and having to send Brandi back to hospital where she can. to be neat. When Brandi was born, her parents lived with her in the hospital for two months and could barely see their other two children.

Jessica Lusk and Dylan Garcia say they had no choice but to stay home to protect their daughter.

“The last thing I want is to have to start over,” Garcia said.

“Or not being able to see her and then she’s in a coffin,” her mom added.

The couple said they were just trying to take one day at a time and praying for the virus to “go away.”

“The only hope we have is the fact that we still have her. She’s still here,” Garcia said. “We’re still with her now.

Dylan Garcia and Jessica Lusk have set up a fundraising page for donations to cover their food, rent and bills. CNN Impact on your world has resources for give help and find help during the pandemic.

[ad_2]

Source link