Photo by Erin FredrichsTribune

Tribune

Open arms of a friend greet Sandia High School junior Danielle Walling during her first lunch back at school after a monthlong absence because of an illness. "It feels good to be kind of normal and back at school," Walling said Wednesday. "I'm fine now; trust me. If I wasn't, I wouldn't be here." Walling participated in the Home Hospital program, where for two weeks, a teacher visited her at home, helping her stay on track with course work.

Photo by Erin FredrichsTribune

Tribune

Danielle Walling puzzles over her math homework after her first day back at school. Illness kept Walling out of school for a month, and in order to keep up with her classes, she participated in the Albuquerque Public Schools Home Hospital program. "I don't think they should ever cut this program," said Tammy Walling, Danielle's mother. "It's the best thing for kids when they are hospitalized. It helps them keep their mind off what is wrong with them."

More School City

• Suspect beef called back from schools
• Measure requiring high school proficiency test awaits New Mexico governor's signature
• Albuquerque's Lenore Wolf has dedicated her life to kids

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation
• Albuquerque company participates in “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

When Danielle Walling tells her Sandia High classmates about the small Nerf football on her lung, she's not playing games.

The 17-year-old junior has an abscess the size of the popular toy on her left lung. Its discovery and the pneumonia that hospitalized her kept her out of school since late September.

But on Oct. 19 while she was still in the hospital, schoolwork came to her, courtesy of John Garcia, one of 10 roving teachers in Albuquerque Public Schools who daily tutor about 55 students too ill or injured to attend classes.

About three decades ago, the district assigned a handful of teachers to tutor hospitalized and homebound children, hence the program name Home Hospital.

Except for two or three years in the early 1980s when the program was disbanded, these traveling teachers each tutored four or five students daily, said Loretta Garcia, a district administrator who has worked with them for 25 years.

"The program was re-implemented because there was such an outcry and outpouring of need by the parents," Garcia said.

Last month, parents who feared the program might be on the chopping block again pleaded with the Albuquerque Board of Education to protect it.

They were assured by Superintendent Beth Everitt that Home Hospital "is one of our most successful programs, and we have no plans to cut it."

Walling's mother, Tammy Walling, said she wanted to add her voice to those pleas. "Cutting this program would not be a good thing. Kids need tutors like this.

"They can't cut it," she said of district officials. "That's crazy. If Danielle hadn't had John to help her, I don't know what we would have done."

The parents who pleaded with the board were responding to a recent move of Home Hospital teachers into the school district's Uptown headquarters from the Aztec Complex on Eubank Northeast.

Formerly housed with special education services, the Home Hospital teachers are now under the Office of Extended Programs.

Loretta Garcia said the administrative move was controversial and some home visits had to be canceled during the packing and unpacking.

"There was a little bit of panic among the teachers," she said.

"Change is hard. There was some discontent. But things are really falling into place nicely, and our children are being served."

Danielle Walling remembers that first meeting with John Garcia, who introduced himself at her hospital bedside.

John Garcia works out of his black Acura, driving from the southernmost corner of the district at Isleta Pueblo to the Northeast Heights every school day. On his way to the Wallings, he often stops at Sandia High to pick up Danielle's assignments or turn in her work.

Garcia's other students include a cancer patient and a boy with a fractured jaw. Each has different books and different needs.

"John is very multitalented and versatile," his colleague Loretta Garcia said. "He's really caring and compassionate. It's a challenge working out of your car and going into homes (where) you don't know what you'll find.

"It's a very unusual job and requires a special person. These teachers really go the extra mile."

John Garcia, who is bilingual, worked with Danielle Walling on her Spanish. She's in her third year. But he was a pro in math, too, she said.

"We started on algebra," Walling said of their first lesson in Presbyterian Hospital. "I was groggy and out of it and attached to an IV, but I got quite a bit of math done in the hospital."

Garcia followed her home when she was released from the hospital Oct. 23. Every day, at about 2:30 p.m., he showed up for an hour to help her.

"I don't want to repeat my junior year," Walling said. "Without John, I'd be very behind in school, and I don't know if I'd be able to pass this semester. So far, all my teachers have been understanding."

On Nov. 19, she is scheduled for another X-ray to determine if her Nerf ball has responded to the antibiotics and started to shrink.

Doctors are mystified by the abscess, which they said contains acne bacteria, Tammy Walling said.

Although her daughter has not had acne, Tammy Walling said, several large bumps appeared on the right side of her face near the jaw line. Those have healed and scabbed over, finally, after five months.

Danielle Walling was told she had pneumonia three months after the bumps appeared and would not heal.

Why and how the acne bacteria got into her lung are questions the Wallings keep asking.

"They are still puzzled," Tammy Walling said of the doctors. "Danielle says she's just a `mystery patient.' "

The teen returned to school this week, half-time. She is to attend three of her classes, instead of all six, each day until she has the strength for a full day.

"It was a good day," she said Monday afternoon. "I'm not feeling too bad."

For the longest distance between classes, she got a ride on the campus security officer's golf cart.

"I honestly think I'll make it through this semester," she said.