Mom and the Hospital

She doesn't remember her experience either. Thank goodness!

But I have told her about it. She was like OMG... "I did that?" I told her yup. You did, and gave me a good lesson. I am thankful she does not remember. Watching her and fearing for her was worst than the doctor's lecture. One of the reason I felt like a horrible mom at the time.

Oh, I agree. No one can say anything to you to make you feel any worse than you already feel when you see your child frightened and in pain.
 
I know this was awful and the way they treated the mother was horrible, but at least I am glad they were cautious and making sure that the child hadn't been abused and that it was just an accident. I would rather they do that than just simply treat the child and ignore the possibility of abuse. Hospital staff are "mandated reporters" (at least in the USA here, not sure about the UK) so they have to do that.

My dad and his wife has beaten me so many times, and I have come to school with bruises on my face, neck, arms and elsewhere. Most of the time, those bruises were ignored, and even when I was asked about the bruises, and I told them the truth, they still did not call the police or CPS at all. I wish they had, because then I would have been rescued from my dad and his wife's house much earlier. I had been abused from the age of 10 until I went into foster care at age 13. The only reason I ended up in foster care was because my dad's wife decided one day that she didn't want me any longer and told my dad that he had to make a choice between me and his wife. He chose her :mad2:, and he gave me up to the state, and that's how I ended up in foster care. I endured a huge amount of abuse from my dad and his wife before going into foster care, and even while in foster care I was still abused too. I could tell you about tons of incidents, and it would take up 20 pages or even more. And it would trigger some people on this forum, so I won't elaborate. I also was NEVER taken to the doctor unless the school made my parents take me...like for example I ended up with an infection on my chin and it was thought to be ringworm. My dad and his wife did absolutely NOTHING about it, and no one did anything about it until one really rude student began making fun of me because of the infection on my chin, and screamed in class "Lucia's got ringworm, run away from her!" and that caught my teacher's attention. My teacher then asked me if I had seen the doctor, and I told her that my parents don't take me to the doctor ever, and so she sent me to the vice principal's office because she wasn't sure how to get my parents to have me treated, and thought the VP would help. VP then called my dad and gave him an ultimatum, that he was to take me to the doctor the next day or I cannot come back to school. So he did take me to the doctor, I got treated, and it was impetigo, I was given a special cream for it, and I was able to come back to school, and the infection went away within a week. They wouldn't even give me ANY medicine unless someone got involved. I ended up with really bad bronchitis/pneumonia one time, and I was NEVER treated for it. I am luckily I am still alive today, because I could have died from untreated bronchitis/pneumonia. No one got the CPS involved about the bronchitis/pneumonia. You could hear me breathing raspy from across the classroom, and the students were always staring at me while I was trying to breathe. Even my interpreter exclaimed that my breathing sounded so bad, and that she was worried. I don't know why my interpreter didn't report me. Maybe because of the interpreters' code of ethics and confidentiality rules, but I think there should have been an exception made for this one, because I could have died in my sleep cause I couldn't breathe. So, I like it when they get cautious and get the CPS involved to make sure it wasn't abuse in this case (in the OP). So...I really do not blame the hospital for getting involved, but I still do not like the way they treated the mother though. The way they treated the mother was quite unnecessary.

I often see on the news here in San Antonio of many kids who have been either shaken (as babies) or being hit or whatever, and they died as a result. There was even a case of a baby that the mother had harmed and the baby had died as a result, and then the mother hid her under the house. It makes me so sad, because in many cases here, no one got involved, the CPS here never got involved. I think the CPS needs to be more proactive, and I think teachers, doctors, and ANYONE who has seen the kids and has seen more than the normal amount of bruises (you can tell the difference between a kid having just tripped while learning to walk and someone actually hitting the child out of anger...if it was abuse, there would be MORE bruises, and they would be much bigger due to the brutal impact of the hitting than if you just fell) and then they should call CPS and get them involved so that they can check the situation out and possibly save the child's life if it was indeed abuse. And you can report them to the CPS anonymously, I think. Unfortunately, CPS has very large caseloads, and the social workers are overworked and underpaid, so it is difficult, and a catch-22.

My own mom was a volunteer working for the recreational program at my old school during the summer (I was in the program, and she just happened to jump in and volunteer just because she liked working with the kids, and they said they could not pay her, but they told her she could volunteer, and so she did because she was happy doing it) and she used to tell me about the kids that she's seen many bruises and other obvious injuries on them and that they may have been abused (she never named names for confidential reasons, of course, but she would say "there was a kid in my class that was....etc" and she never told me any personal info such as names etc). I don't know if she has reported them to the CPS, she didn't say, but this was back in the 1980s, so I have no idea. I was a little kid. But it was sad hearing about the kids, as my mom was also a former foster child herself. I am a 2nd generation foster child...my mother died two months before my 10th birthday, and no, she has never laid a hand on me ever, it was my dad's wife (my stepmom) who abused and hit me so much.

So, I think the hospital getting involved was necessary in this case - better safe than sorry - (in the OP's link) but the way they treated the mother was not necessary. If they had done nothing and it turned out to be due to abuse, the child could have been badly traumatized or possibly have died from further abuse later on. You never know....it's not like the government can put video cameras in every family's homes to make sure the children aren't abused (that's too much, that's a really bad invasion of privacy). So, I would prefer that the hospital got involved, called the CPS, and have them interview the mother and checked the child, and spoken to the doctors and nurses and gotten the doctor's opinions on whether it was abuse or accidental (doctors can tell the difference, hence the need for many x-rays and the brain scans). X-rays was probably to check to see if there were old broken bones and possible new ones, and also to possibly check to see if the baby had an disorder such as brittle bone disease (where bones can break frequently no matter how careful you are with the child) - those can show up on x-rays, I believe, and would show an obvious history of abuse - and the brain scans were probably to check for Shaken Baby Syndrome or something similar to that. Better safe than sorry. Yeah, the baby was hungry and couldn't eat due to the need to be sedated for the tests, but it's only for one day (the article says she was not allowed to eat from 7 am to 2 pm due to the scans) and being hungry for about 7 hours would not kill her. It would only make her very cranky. I would rather she be a cranky baby in order to make sure that this was just an accident and not due to abuse. Like I said before, better safe than sorry. You may not like my opinion, but that's just how I feel.
 
Oh my, its freaking sad...what is the world coming to?
You cant even take the child to the doctor or hospital
and be really paranoid, thinking you could be a suspect
that you abused your child..whoa! That is so sad and
scary!
 
Oh my dear, I feel bad for mother...:(

Where is their common sense? 18 X-Ray? Did they know that it harm child's health?

I would sue the doctor when I were mother.
 
exactly. in America - the hospitals are required to notify police/CPS if they suspected any sign of abuse/mistreatment/etc. They are not allowed to take legal matters in their own hands. poor mother! she was traumatized by whole thing and she was terrorized by the hospital staff. :mad2:

Yes, hospitials, kindergarten and schools are obligate to inform CPS/police here in Germany. It also does the same with European countries including England but I'm surprise what and how the British doctor did that to mother... I will check with my friend on this.
 
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