“When he was born,they didn’t know what was wrong,” she said. “One official diagnosis was failure to thrive, but when he was just a few months old, they discovered his lungs had collapsed. That’s when they decided to go with the trach … When you have a child who is on a vent, caregivers have to take classes and undergo a home study.”
Through that process, the hospital and DHR recommended that Muajani, who works as a certified nursing assistant, be M.J.’s caretaker – something she said she never saw herself doing. “I worked a lot, and I didn’t have any babies, so I was like ‘No, that’s not for me,’” she said.
When the choicecame down to M.J. coming home with her or going into the foster care system, however,Muajani said it was an easy decision. “He’s family, and we take care of family,” she said. She brought M.J. home a week after his first birthday. “I’ve had him ever since,” she said. “It was a struggle at first.It was different at the hospital, when you can call for a nurse, but it got real when he came home.”
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