The harrowing story of a St. Joseph’s College child study student who delivered a baby girl at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn while sick with COVID-19, was featured on ABC News this week.
Iris Nolasco, an SJC Brooklyn senior, hopes that she will hold Isabella Michelle — who is still being monitored in the medical center’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) — very soon.
Until then, Nolasco is admiring her daughter through a baby monitor.
“Two days after my daughter’s birth they put a camera so I could see her from home,” Nolasco said. “It is hard not being able to hold her. I see her little body, and her precious face, and it hurts me a lot because she looks so lonely.
“I think she misses my voice,” Nolasco added. “I used to talk to her when she was in my belly, and now she looks so vulnerable.”
Doctors diagnosed Nolasco with the coronavirus while she was 31 weeks pregnant. She wasn’t getting enough oxygen and needed a ventilator, so she had an emergency C-section.“It was very frightening because I didn’t know if I would ever talk or see my family again,” she noted.
Now, Nolasco is focusing on resting up, eating healthy, staying hydrated, and taking her vitamins until she is clear to hold her baby for the first time.
“I can’t wait for that moment,” she said. “I was hoping to see her soon, but since I have the virus, I’m not allowed to see her — not even through a window. The rule is that I have to show two negative tests consecutively, but I’m still testing positive.”
Support from the SJCNY Community
Nolasco transferred to SJC Brooklyn from Kingsborough Community College as a full-time, non-traditional student. The entire Department of Child Study is sending prayers for Nolasco, and Isabella’s, speedy recovery.
“Iris learned English in her mid-20s, which makes her success at KBCC and SJC even more remarkable,” said Susan Straut Collard, Ph.D., director of the SJC Brooklyn’s Dillon Center. “She is hard-working, intrinsically motivated, very bright and a genuinely warm and wonderful human being.
“Iris … always makes time for her peers at SJC, and is very well-regarded by other child study majors in the Class of 2020,” Dr. Straut Collard continued. “It has been my pleasure to both teach and advise Iris, and I will be sad when she graduates. I am hoping that she returns for the Master’s program in Special Education.”
Nolasco said the support she is receiving from the St. Joseph’s College community is humbling. Many of her professors — including Dr. Straut Collard, Dr. Wendy Hope, and Professor Phyllis Corbin — often check in to see how she and her family are doing. Her 15-year-old son, JohnCarlos, and her fiancé James also experienced coronavirus symptoms.
“I feel blessed to be part of the St. Joseph’s community,” Nolasco said. “My professors and staff members are being so supportive to me during this time. I have been in contact with all my professors. I am behind in school work, so I wanted to make sure they know my health condition.”
