Teacher looks after student’s baby brother while family recovers from COVID-19

One elementary school teacher is caring for her student’s sibling as he and his family recover from COVID-19. INQUIRER.net stock photo

A teacher in Connecticut, United States took in a student’s newborn sibling after its family contracted the coronavirus.

Luciana Lira, a bilingual elementary school teacher, received a call from the 7-year-old boy’s mom while she was in labor, a fellow teacher, Joy Colon, said on Facebook on April 18.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10223258839918022&set=a.1130575823322&type=3&theater

“She asked if Luciana would call her husband who does not speak English and is unable to read or write in English as well,” Colon recalled. “Then she asked Luciana if she could come to the hospital; she had just been diagnosed with [COVID]-19 and she was about to deliver.”

“It was literally a call from God. I didn’t think twice. I told my family, ‘I just have to do this,’” Lira told WCBS 880 on April 30.

The boy’s mom, Zully, is an immigrant from Guatemala seeking asylum, Getty via Connecticut Post reported on April 30. She and her husband reportedly had no one to turn to in the U.S.

“I have always believed that the relationship between student and teacher should go beyond and above to include the whole family,” Lira said in the WCBS 880 report.

Zully had to be put on a ventilator so that an emergency cesarean section could be performed. The baby was born on April 2, five weeks ahead of schedule. Though Zully was finally released from the hospital on April 25, she has yet to hold her baby.

The newborn has been in Lira’s care for about a month while the family awaits negative test results. Niña V. Guno/JB

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