As the coronavirus spread in early March, Marilyn Howard worked side-by-side at Spring Street Community School in Brooklyn with a fellow nurse who came in with a fever and bad cough because she had run out of paid sick days.
Howard, 53, started feeling sick that weekend, when Mayor de Blasio finally decided to close schools for students. She tested positive for COVID-19, and collapsed on April 4 at the peak of the pandemic.
“My sister didn’t have to die, her brother, Haslyn Howard, told The Post. “It was completely preventable.”
Howard is apparently the only school nurse killed by COVID-19, but the city Department of Education has never counted her among its dead.
The DOE said it has lost 68 employees as of April 24 due to the coronavirus. While assigned to the East New York middle-high school, Howard was paid by the city Health Department.
“She loved being a school nurse,” Haslyn said. “She got to help kids day in and day out, and she was good at it.”
Howard was also a doting aunt to eight nieces and nephews. “She was at everyone’s graduation, everyone’s birthday. Every significant moment she would turn up,” her brother said.
She emigrated from Guyana with her parents in 1981 at age 14 and helped care for four younger brothers. She first went to college at age 35, earned a Master’s degree, and recently enrolled in Long Island University to become a nurse practitioner.
Howard started feeling sick on March 14, a day after classes ended. On March 15, de Blasio announced he would close schools. It was too late for Howard.
Because Howard was a nurse, she was tested for COVID-19 on March 16. It took 10 days to receive the dreaded results. By then, however, she felt better and seemed to be recovering, Haslyn said.
But the following week, she worsened. On April 4, she woke up in her Queens apartment with tightness on her chest and “couldn’t catch her breath,” Haslyn said.
Her brother Nigel, who was caring for Howard, called 911. But the ambulance response was so slow, due to overwhelming demand, he decided to drive his sister to Northwell Hospital in Valley Stream, six miles away.
She passed out 30 seconds before arriving at the hospital, where she was given CPR, to no avail.
The school nurse who worked with Howard was out sick for several weeks. An aide in the office was hospitalized, her brother said.
“I’m angry that the system failed my sister and potentially many others because the schools remained open despite the imminent threat,” Haslyn said. “We are fairly confident she got this as a result of being at school without protection.”
Howard’s family gathered to mourn Howard via Zoom. More than 250 friends and relatives logged in to honor her memory. They are now raising a memorial fund to support health-care workers fighting COVID-19.
