‘Selfless’ teacher takes in student’s newborn brother
Instructor steps in while baby’s mother, family recover from COVID-19
One month ago, Luciana Lira, a bilingual teacher at a Stamford elementary school, got a call from a parent like no other call.
The mom, gravely ill with the coronavirus and about to deliver a premature baby, could barely breathe. “Miss Lira?” she said in Spanish. “I need help.”
The call set off a chain of events that led to Lira agreeing to take the woman’s newborn while the mother and her other family members recover from COVID-19. The 42-year-old educator
spent most of April teaching online during the day and warming up bottles and feeding the baby at night, all while looking after her own son, husband and in-laws.
For the baby’s mother, Zully, recovery has been slow. Her breathing tube was removed only on April 18, and she still is testing positive for COVID-19. Zully’s son — Lira’s student — Junior, 7, also tested positive, as did Zully’s husband, Marvin. Lira withheld the family’s last name for privacy reasons.
The baby tested negative. Calling Lira “selfless,” her principal at Hart Magnet Elementary School, Linda Darling, said, “She was asked to care for a newborn baby during a pandemic when she herself was concerned for the welfare of her own child and family. In a split second, Ms. Lira said ‘yes,’ and totally committed her time and efforts to seeing that this baby was nurtured emotionally and cared for as one of her own.”
In the urgent phone call, Zully asked Lira to call her husband, Marvin. She gave Lira his number.
At the time, Lira wouldn’t have known Marvin if she walked into him, she said. Her only contact with him was seeing him in the distance on parent-teacher conference night, waving hello.
But after Zully’s April 1 request, Lira was now on the phone with him, speaking Spanish, and he was a mess.
“All he could do is cry. And cry. And cry,” Lira said. “She was five weeks early.”
“He said, ‘I’m just terrified. I don’t know what’s going on in my life,’” she said.
Lira realized she needed to act as an interpreter for the family. So she went to the hospital, but was turned away when staff learned that she was not a relative.
A few days later, with Marvin’s approval, she was allowed to receive medical information on behalf of the family. Lira was now the point person for communication between Marvin and Stamford Hospital. In addition to talking to Marvin, she has been communicating with family members as far away as Guatemala.
Her role was stressful. Zully was doing very poorly. She delivered her 5-pound, 12-ounce baby boy while in a medically induced coma, Lira said.
“She was critically ill, to the point where they thought she wasn’t going to make it,” Lira said.
While Zully lay in a hospital bed, unaware she had given birth, the conversation turned to the baby, who eventually was named
Neysel. Much to Lira’s surprise, the preemie was able to go home after only five days in the hospital.
“I never, never expected them to discharge him on day five. I thought they would keep the baby for 14 days,” Lira said.
Marvin, who strongly suspected he, like his wife, had COVID-19, was afraid his newborn would contract the disease. He had no available relatives who could take the baby home. His concerns would later prove to be valid when he and his son tested positive.
“‘Mrs. Lira, I know I can’t ask you this,’” he said one day, according to Lira.
“I said, ‘Don’t even say it because I’m going to,’” Lira said. “‘You don’t even have to ask. My answer is yes.’”
Marvin insisted on making Lira’s husband Alex — who only knows a little bit of Spanish — part of the conversation before she brought a strange baby into the house, she said.
“Marvin is amazing, a very, very responsible man,” she said. “Even the nurse was crying.”
Lira had to get ready. It had been more than a decade since she had a newborn in the house. She spread the word, and donations came in. A colleague from school set up a gift registry for baby items. People donated supplies and food, she said.
Then came the day of discharge. Donning a mask, gloves and protective covering, Lira took a car seat and headed to the hospital. She posted a picture of what she looked like on Facebook.
At the hospital, a staff member rolled a cart with the precious cargo into a waiting area. The baby was clearly visible through the clear, bin-like crib and was facing Lira. Marvin, who, like Lira, also was wearing head-to-toe protective gear, was standing on the opposite corner of the room, recording the moment from a distance with his phone.
“Oh … my … God. Hi, Baby,” Lira said. The baby opened his eyes, looked at her and blinked, as if trying to figure out her role in his new life.
Asked what that felt like, Lira said, “Oh my God, I cried. I’m like, am I just having a nightmare right now? This is surreal. This should not happen. This father, who adores his son, who adores his son so much, can’t even go near his son. I just felt extremely depressed and sad. It’s a stranger who’s taking the baby home.”
Since he arrived at her house, Neysel has been doing “amazing,” said Lira, who sounds upbeat even when she’s dog-tired. “I work full time during the day, and at night, the baby’s up.”
Asked when she gets sleep, she laughed. “I’m getting strength from God.”
“My husband’s like ‘How are you doing this?’” Lira said. Alex Lira also is working at home, and their older son, Christopher, 11, is taking online lessons for school and taekwondo. Alex’s parents, Eliane and Alvaro Lira, have been staying at the house since their flights home kept getting canceled after a family vacation.
Lira is more worried about Zully than herself. While her condition gradually improved, and Zully was discharged, she is far from recovered. She is having trouble walking. Lira said doctors wanted Zully to go into a rehabilitation center, but Zully and Marvin lack the insurance to pay for it because they both got laid off from their jobs at the beginning of the health crisis, essentially falling victim to the coronavirus twice.
Lira set up a GoFundMe fundraiser to help the family. More than $7,000 of the $25,000 goal had been raised by Friday evening.
She doesn’t know if it will be possible, but Lira would like to see mother and baby together on a special day, May 10.
“My dream would be to have her home, with the baby, for Mother’s Day,” she said.