Jacksonville, FL - Nine-year-old Makenna Simon had been in the ICU on oxygen but a post on her father, Tristan Simon's Facebook page, said today (September 30) that a "pulmonologist said that it looks like she’s turned a corner, in the right direction." Tristan said that the reason Makenna is in the hospital is that the Flagler County School Board did not pass a facemask mandate.
Tristan is encouraging anyone reading this post to "please, for our baby, reach out to the Flagler County School Board and ask them why, why did they not protect Makenna! Why did they allow this to happen to our baby!!!!! And what are they going to do to protect the other children? How many does it have to be until they care? One is too many, we would never wish this hell on our worst enemy."
Makenna has been at Wolfson's Children's Hospital for more than a week. According to her father, her 14-year-old sister, a Matanzas High School student, contracted COVID-19 from a non-masked classmate. The 14-year-old is vaccinated and, from Tristan's Facebook page "she had very few symptoms that passed pretty quickly. We did the right thing at home and isolated, but unfortunately, it was too late. Our entire family ended up infected. Because we were vaccinated, the adults did fine."
Tristan's brother created a gofundme account to help with the hospital bills. Makenna ended up with a severe case of double pneumonia caused by Covid and has spent most of her time in the ICU. From the brother: "At a time when they were already struggling to make ends meet, this means additional medical expenses, childcare expenses, and stress. It seems that Makenna will pull through, but they are underwater in bills and can use any help they can get."
