By creator to www.firstcoastnews.com
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — One-year-old Phoebe Friebel hasn’t seen her dad moreover by means of FaceTime in three weeks.
“She is aware of he’s there, however I don’t suppose she understands, ‘why hasn’t he come to see me,” Jenee Friebel, the child’s mom, stated. “That’s the unhappy half.”
Phoebe Friebel, from St. Augustine, has spent most of her life within the hospital due to a coronary heart defect. Now, COVID-19 has restricted her guests to only one. Phoebe Friebel’s coronary heart defect causes the left facet of her coronary heart to not absolutely develop, so her whole coronary heart depends on the precise facet to maintain her alive.
She acquired a synthetic coronary heart in September at Shands Kids’s Hospital in Gainesville. Since then, she’ s waited on the hospital for an actual coronary heart. When First Coast Information final spoke with the child’s mother and father in February, Phoebe Friebel wasn’t doing that nice. Actually, she was so weak on the time that if a coronary heart grew to become accessible, they feared she wouldn’t make it by means of the surgical procedure.
The excellent news, Jenee Friebel stated, is that now, her daughter is doing a lot better.
“We’ve been having some actually good days,” Jenee Friebel stated. “This previous week, she has been tremendous glad and he or she has simply been in such temper.”
Besides now, they’ve one other fear: coronavirus.
“Her lungs are usually not the best. She’s nonetheless on oxygen assist, so if Phoebe had been to get coronavirus, I’m undecided she’d have the ability to struggle it,” Jenee Friebel stated. “She’s already struggling as it’s. It’s actually scary the truth that I can choose it up wherever and convey it to her, so I’ve needed to be very, very cautious.”
Jenee Friebel is her daughter’s solely customer due to the hospital’s precautions associated to the virus. She stated she solely goes to the hospital and her residence to restrict attainable publicity to COVID-19.
“I assumed earlier than coronavirus [Phoebe waiting for a heart] was placing a damper on having household time collectively, and now that this has occurred, , clearly we don’t get that particular time collectively,” she stated.
If a coronary heart turns into accessible Monday, Friebel stated they’d have the ability to undergo with the transplant.
“If Phoebe had been to get a coronary heart, the unhappy half is Karl wouldn’t even have the ability to see her earlier than or after the surgical procedure, so that will be actually laborious, however we’ll take it,” Jenee Friebel stated.
She stated her worst worry is that the hospital employees makes the laws on who can go to even stronger.
“I used to be nervous they had been going to say no mother and father in any respect, which I don’t know what’s going to occur. I hope not, however that’s my worst worry: Phoebe sitting up there alone for weeks or months,” she stated.
For now, they’ll maintain out for the top of this pandemic like they’re holding out for a coronary heart.
-- to www.firstcoastnews.com
