Ever wonder how hospitals end up taking control of a child's healthcare when there's a perfectly able mother standing bedside?
When the mother sounds like she's a total whack-a-doodle.
Montreal Children's Hospital has gained permission from the courts to continue treating a fifteen-year-old girl badly burned in a house fire for the next two years. Her mother, who suffered minor injuries in the same fire, says she wants the girl to be taken off life support and sent home. But she couldn't bother showing up to court to tell the judge that.
The girl was burned over fifteen percent of her body, including internal - airway - burns on March 7. Doctors are optimistic - after all, they've called for at least two years of further treatment - but say she will need surgery and is currently on medicines to treat infection and help with her severe pain.
According to the National Post, the mom has taken to showing up at odd hours at the hospital to visit her daughter and was caught wiping the child's face with industrial cleaning cloths (like the kind you'd use to disinfect your bathroom) and playing with the girl's respirator. They don't out and out say it, but everything about this mother seems to scream "she wants her child to die." It may be much simpler - denial, maybe? A lack of trust for the medical community?
I always wonder what drives a parent to play superman (or supermom, in this case) and claim they know more than a set of physicians. Being your child's health advocate is one thing; outright claims that you know more than the people who went to school for this for a long, long time signal someone is delusional. And if the mother couldn't bother showing up in court to fight her side - or send a lawyer to represent her - you have to ask, does she care?
Image: Montreal Children's
Related Posts:
