FACETIME: Connecting a Home-Bound Mena Student to the Classroom

 

BY LEANN DILBECK –

Today’s technology is proving to do much more than improve a child’s physical illness, it’s also keeping her in school and interacting with her teachers and classmates. We first brought you the story of Faith Chaney in 2008, when she was just 6 and set to return home after receiving an anonymous bone marrow transplant for a medical condition known as Aplastic Anemia that has threatened her life since the age of 3.

Aplastic Anemia is a relatively rare disease in which the bone marrow does not produce any blood cells or platelets.  At her release, doctors considered Faith “cured” and didn’t think that she would ever be affected by the disease again.

Three years later, we brought you the heart-warming story in 2011, of Faith meeting her donor during a “Faith Gives Back” event in 2011 and at that time, she continued to be thriving, enjoying the normal life of a pre-teen girl…until just earlier this year.

Faith was excited to be starting the sixth grade and attending Mena Middle School but her mother, Sheli Chaney, began noticing that she was more fatigued and didn’t look well. Following her mother’s intuition, she took Faith in for tests, which concluded that her platelets were again low. Further tests showed that she was not rejecting the transplant so physicians were able to access a portion of frozen bone marrow from the same donor that had been retained. It is only five weeks after the procedure and the family and physicians remain hopeful that her levels will rebound, which can take up to eight weeks.

Because of her relapse, Faith must regularly go to Arkansas Children’s Hospital for blood transfusions. With her unhealthy blood levels, her immune system is severely compromised so she is unable to attend school to protect her as much as possible from contracting viruses that, may not be serious to a healthy child, but could become life threatening to Faith because of her condition.

But with today’s technology, Faith, for the most part, is able to stay caught up on her academics and is able to interact with her teachers and classmates via the classroom iPads utilizing Facetime.  For those who may not be familiar with Facetime, it allows you to call from a mobile device and each party is able to see the other through video. Faith has her own desk in each of her classrooms and is able to digitally attend each of her classes.

“It’s just remarkable how much this has meant to Faith,” said Kathy Perez, her grandmother. “She was so excited about starting Middle School and when this happened it was just very hard for her but now, since she is still able to feel like part of the class, it has just made such a difference for her. We are so grateful.”

One of Faith’s teachers, Robin Ponder, said that she hopes other schools will grasp this concept for students who are home bound. “It’s like she’s here with us in the class…she holds up her hand to participate or ask questions and the kids treat her just like she’s here. They even carry the iPad into the hallway and kids will walk by and wave and say ‘hi, Faith.’  She added how difficult it is for any student to miss school because of the academics but missing the student interaction is also a big part, especially at the junior high level.

Faith’s mother is an 8^th grade teacher at the Middle School so teachers are able to funnel worksheets and other handouts to Faith in her mom’s ‘mailbox’ at school.

While Faith’s family is disappointed at the set-back, they, as they have from the beginning, remain steadfastly faithful in the power of prayer. Kathy added, “We always feel so blessed to see how this community supports our family. What the school is doing to help Faith not feel like she is missing out, just means more than they will ever know.”

Other stories on this same topic:

http://mypulsenews.com/faiths-very-happy-new-year/

http://mypulsenews.com/faith-gives-back/

http://mypulsenews.com/faith-meets-man-responsible-for-saving-her-life/

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