Liliana Parker, 8 years old and very cute, happened to be in front of the hippo display Friday morning at the Natural History Museum when it was time to check her blood sugar levels.
"It doesn't really hurt," Liliana said when her mother handed her a small finger-pricking and blood analysis device. "You only feel it for, like, two seconds."
Liliana was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 6, and with no full-time nurse on her Westwood Charter School campus, she has had to learn how to take care of herself. In the Hall of African Mammals, Liliana drew a drop of blood from the tip of her left index finger, placed it on a test strip that slides into her device, then licked the finger clean with a giggle.
A digital monitor gave her a reading that was a bit high, she said, but not a big deal. It was liable to come down a bit before lunch.
Liliana was hanging out at the museum with her two 8-year-old buddies, Ellie Ross and Sebastian Doorhout Mees, who have learned to monitor her behavior and can often tell if her levels are too high or too low. Once, when Liliana's blood sugar had dipped too low, red-headed Sebastian raced to the school office to get an adult.
It seems like ancient history now, but once upon a time we had nurses on every public school campus in California. Today, the state ranks near the bottom in national nurse-to-student ratios, with one nurse per every 2,200 students, making life more difficult for kids with medical conditions, including an estimated 15,000 with diabetes.
Last year, parents sued the state and forced a settlement in which nonmedical school employees would be trained to administer insulin to diabetic children. But then several nursing organizations filed their own suit, arguing that only medical professionals should be entrusted with such a responsibility. On Nov. 14, a Sacramento County judge ruled in the nurses' favor.
Liliana's mother, Greta Parker, was outraged. Of course she'd rather have nurses on campus full time, but trained teachers and aides made for a fair alternative. Now there will be neither.
"I feel like my child is a pawn," she said.
Jeffrey Ehrlich, a Claremont lawyer and father of a 9-year-old diabetic, was just as steamed.
"I'd love to have a nurse at every school, but the idea that nurses are the only ones that can help diabetic kids manage their health is ridiculous," he said. "It's not rocket science."
