What's it all about Alfieeeeeee
Well a distrust of doctors isn't always a bad thing! ;)
> By the time Deborah Robinson's daughter was taken to the hospital last week, the former middle school track runner weighed about 75 pounds
I can see it now: "Like, OMIGAWD! What a *fabulous* new diet!!"
Why anyone would pierce, tattoo, or not shave his face is beyond me.
What is wrong with that picture?
A loooong time ago I worked at Spencer Gifts and a customer came in who said she was going to pierce her own tongue. She never came in after that...hmmm...
I guess you're not from the Boston area, and not familiar with this case. The mother kept the girl from getting any medical attention for weeks, the infection spread and caused damage to several organs, when they found the girl she lost 75 pounds and was near death.
This is from a Boston Herald article"
"Deborah Robinson, 38, a single mother with no phone, no job and no health insurance."
"Experts said the 13-year-old girl may have suffered ``incredible pain'' for as long as a month from pneumonia, starvation and ``widespread abscesses'' ravaging her abdominal cavity. "
Before you laugh too heartily at this Post piece, you might want to know there's a lot more to the story than what's represented here. Excerpted:
Deborah Robinson didn't call a doctor, prosecutors said yesterday, when her daughter botched an attempt to pierce her own belly button and a life-threatening infection set in. She didn't call one when the girl, in excruciating pain, took to the living room couch three weeks ago and basically stopped eating or moving, prosecutors said. And she didn't call when her daughter lost control of her bowels; instead, prosecutors say, Robinson put her 13-year-old in diapers.Robinson told a court psychologist yesterday that she was afraid that a doctor would sexually abuse her daughter. The 38-year-old Hyde Park resident, charged Saturday with child neglect after paramedics found her daughter emaciated and near death last week, was ordered held without bail yesterday until a more complete psychiatric evaluation is conducted to determine whether she is competent to stand trial.
West Roxbury District Court Judge Robert N. Tochka ordered the evaluation after the court psychologist testified that Robinson was showing signs of mental illness, including paranoia.
Robinson's daughter, meanwhile, underwent another in a series of surgeries at Boston Medical Center to stem the infection and treat numerous abscesses in her abdomen, prosecutor David Deakin said. She remained in critical condition. The Globe is withholding the girl's name to protect her privacy.
Robinson listened attentively but with little emotion as Deakin described what state social service officials have called one of the most shocking cases of neglect in years.
Last week, paramedics found her daughter, a tall girl wasted away to about 75 pounds, lying on the living room couch wearing a diaper, despondent, and with no detectable blood pressure. Doctors diagnosed her with sepsis, a bloodstream infection that would have caused ''incredible pain" within 24 hours of onset. Deakin said she could have been sick for as long as four weeks.
This is just horrible. If this young lady recovers (and I certainly pray she does) the state should send her to live with a relative -- not back to live with that irresponsible mother.
One of the more unusual piercings that I have seen in our clinic was when a 15 year old boy was spotted by the school nurse to be walking as if something hurt. The night before, he had pierced his scrotum with a 2" curved upholstery needle. He kept it in, so that the hole wouldn't close, and was walking around school with the needle still in.