A Rochester mother is outraged after a medical company requested to take back what she calls a backup ventilator.

“They’re going to have to take me to jail if they want this ventilator, I’m sorry, I will fight to death to protect my child, she doesn’t have a voice but I do,” said Yanira Matos of Rochester.

The mother tells Spectrum News Respiratory Services of Western New York reached out to her Monday about the backup ventilator. Her 7-year-old daughter Nevaeh Matos depends on a ventilator and has an undiagnosed motor neuron disease.

Matos added, “The backup ventilator now has been living in my home for 7 years, okay, we are accustomed to it, she has a letter of medical necessity from her pulmonologist stating that she has to have two ventilators in the home.”

The company says the machine it is requesting is a travel ventilator and is not meant to be a backup.

“Seeing that she will not be going anywhere – what’s going on, we’re trying to get that second ventilator because obviously there’s a big need that’s going on right now,” said Michael McCartney, CEO of Respiratory Services of Western New York.

Matos said the company gave her mixed messages about their request for the travel ventilator, citing both the response to COVID-19 and insurance issues.

Respiratory Services of Western New York tells Spectrum News it is reaching out to people with two ventilators to collect during the pandemic, and Matos is not the only family affected.

McCartney added, “The people that have second ventilators that are sitting on the ground doing nothing could be put on somebody.”

Matos said, “I understand what’s going on. I feel bad for the families, I really, really do, but at the end of the day they been fighting for months, my daughter has been fighting for years.”

The mother plans to report this case to the Office of the Attorney General along with documentation from a doctor stating that her daughter needs two ventilators.

Respiratory Services of Western New York said it will ask the insurance company to find another provider to handle the ventilator and medical supplies.