My son, Zaire He loves music.

He's well-mannered.

He's going to go above and beyond to try to help somebody.

He loves sports.

He loves to rap.

He loves to dance.

Yeah.

I found out he has asthma when he was six weeks old.

He'll get really tired.

His chest will start pulling a lot more, so it'll mostly I pay attention to his rib cage.

When my chest hurts.

It gets tight.

Like it's very tight and it just doesn't feel good.

It gets uncomfortable.

Last year when we first got down here, the nurse was calling me every other week.

Mom, you need to come get Zaire.

He can't breathe.

So I was I was literally out of work, maybe at least 2 or 3 times out of the week.

That's when the nurse, she gave me Lorrie's information.

And then Lorrie reached out to me, and we've been connected ever since.

Hi, buddy.

How you doing?

He was a kid that was used to not breathing.

You can get enough air to go, but, like, you don't want to walk fast.

You don't want to talk a whole lot because it's very taxing on you.

He was used to living like that.

And that's not a way for a kid to live.

He didn't talk because he needed the air to breathe and, you know, not to be vocal.

They didn't let him go outside and play.

Couldn't do P.E..

He was up here in the health room daily, multiple times a day.

So we're missing a lot of class time.

You know, by not being able to breathe.

MUSC’s school based telehealth program is a program where we take care to kids at school, which is where they are.

And by doing this, we have decreased emergency department visits.

We've provided access to sick visits, acute care visits.

So anything at any childhood illness that a child would go see the school nurse for, if they determine that the child could benefit from seeing a provider, we can have one of our providers connect to them in under five minutes.

Hi.

We provide some chronic condition management for asthma and ADHD and new this year.

We have a behavioral health component as well.

The goal of the program is to increase seat time.

So we averaged 97 or 98%.

Which means if a student comes and sees one of our providers, as long as they're not infectious, that's the percentage of time we're able to have them go back to class and continue to learn.

...No coughing at night?

As a tele-presenter, I am basically the hands for..

They can listen.

They can see.

They just can't touch the patients.

She put a thing to the right on my chest like that and I had to breathe soft.

And then I start breathing hard.

Good.

Our program provides some in-person care, but primarily telehealth.

We partner with local school districts and schools who are interested in providing the service to students, and we provide them with a device to provide telehealth services.

So it's not just like FaceTiming a provider.

We have the ability to listen to heart and lungs, to look at skin, to look at scalps, look in eyes, mouth, nose, throats, ears.

It comes with blood pressure cuffs and pulse oximeters.

And so we're really able to get a full exam of the child through telehealth.

Williamsburg was one of the very first counties that MUSC school based health programs served, and there is a huge need for students there to receive care for asthma.

Among other things, we offer services in all of the schools in Williamsburg County.

And so Lorrie works very closely with those schools to identify those students who may have asthma or another reason to see a provider.

I think these pretty faithful are you rinsing your mouth afterwards.

Yeah.

Yeah.

My providers give good care.

And that's the most important thing to me because these are my kids do.

And they need good care.

Telehealth has helped us tremendously.

They made sure that Zaire, has all of his medications.

I really haven't had to miss work.

Haven’t had to have to...

He hasn’t really had an asthma attack.

It has been a wonderful help.

We followed him real closely, like probably monthly, but we've been able to spread out the visits a little bit.

And he comes in here, he smiles and chit chats and I mean, he's just a different kid.

He gets to go to class and stay there.

He gets to play at recess.

During the pollen season, he does still spend a little bit of time up here because that's a huge trigger for him.

But I mean, he's just night and day difference and he knows it.

It works.

It's better now.

I like to sing and I like to dance.

And I can dance now without my chest hurting.