Posted on 11/01/2015 6:54:40 AM PST by UMCRevMom@aol.com
Tiffany Cherry only wanted the best possible care for sick baby. And despite the fact that her concern triggered an Amber Alert and sent her to prison, she has no regrets. After all, he’s getting better.
As WBZ News reports, Cherry had taken her two-month-old son Qavai to an emergency clinic in Pennsylvania, where a nurse told her that Qavai was dehydrated and told Cherry to take her son to an emergency room.
But as far as Cherry was concerned, there was only hospital she trusted to take care of her baby.
“I brought him to Boston because Boston Children’s is where he needed to be,†she told WBZ. “Everything in me told me ‘Tiffany, go get your baby to Boston Children’s Hospital.'â€
Dissatisfied with the care available in Pennsylvania, Cherry got in a car and drove four-and-a-half hours to Boston Children’s Hospital, widely regarded as one of the best in the country.
“I was not comfortable with the level of care my child was receiving. I would do anything for my children,†said Cherry.
At Boston Children’s, doctor’s diagnosed Qavai as having issues with his esophagus and white blood count. The dehydration issue cited by the nurse in Pennsylvania was a misdiagnosis from a nurse who, “looked at my son for ten seconds and didn’t know what she was looking at,†said Cherry.
Unfortunately, when Cherry left Pennsylvania without taking her son to the hospital mentioned by that nurse, she triggered an Amber Alert. According to the Boston Globe, Pennsylvania allows an Amber Alert (usually used in cases of child abduction) to be issued in situations where a child’s health or life is endangered. Though Cherry drove her baby to the ER—as instructed by a nurse—her decision to pick a different hospital led to her arrest in Boston. Cherry is currently in custody, fighting to get her children back.
“They are my life. I deserve them back and they deserve their mommy,†she told WBZ.
Cherry says that she’s especially protective of her children after the devastating loss of her first child, who was stillborn in 2009. Having them taken away from her now has been very difficult.
“It hurts. It hurts. It hurts,†she sobbed.
However, the news that Qavai is getting better made it all worth it. While Cherry says that she thinks Pennsylvania authorities “jumped the gun†on the Amber Alert, she would do it all again for her little boy. And she’s more certain than ever that she did the right thing.
“I’m so thankful to Boston Children’s Hospital may have saved my sons life,†said Cherry.
Cherry is now facing a number of legal problems as the result of her trip to Boston, but her first priority is getting custody of her children again. Her lawyer has argued that this was not a proper use of an Amber Alert, while others are hoping that the courts will see fit to reunite the devoted mother with her family.
“She is a great mother,†her niece, Tarshi Cherry, told the Boston Globe. “It’s her whole life.â€
Please. Just stop. She was in Pennsylvania, and then drove through New York to Boston. Don’t tell me Boston only had what she needed for her son. Give it up. This story smells.
You’d find that nurse and do what?
The nurse was correct in making the initial diagnosis of dehydration.
Poor skin turgor,dry mucous membranes,possibly weak cry = get that baby to an emergency room NOW!
The only thing the nurse could have possibly done different instead of relying on a knuckle headed mother,is to have called paramedics.
Further assessment of the child along with blood work etc would be done at an acute care center and not at a clinic.
Well if it were Memphis, and you are on welfare, you use the 1 public hospital. Or Le Bonheur Children’s hospital.
No one in their right minds would use the public hospital, the welfare/illegals have turned the ER into a 24/7 doctors office. Might take 8 or more hours to be seen. It is now spilling over into the private hospitals.
It doesn’t matter if you live outside Shelby CO, if your child is sick they all take them to Le Bonheur Children’s hospital. For top notch treatment. No one is turned away.
Following the dubious assumption that the infant was not dehydrated is the even more unsupported assumption that he could not have been adequately treated at the nearest emergency facility.
Public Hospitals can fool you. Especially the kind associated with those that cannot pay.
If I were to be shot by a gun, and I was anywhere near Grady Hospital in Atlanta, that’s where I’d want to go. It would cost a bundle, but I’d be alive and kicking so they could max out that insurance coverage I have. They are experts at trauma.
So you’re saying it’s a go good thing she’s in jail and her child was taken from her? Do you really think the child is better off in foster care?
It looks as if I was not as clear, in post 14, as I should have been. By “no harm, no foul” I meant that, although Ms. Cherry’s judgment was questionable, the child received adequate care in time. I did not mean to say that her being in jail was a good outcome.
Boston children’s has taken children before, remember Justina Pelitier.....
The mom could be a bad mother, but Boston Children’s has been pulling crap like this for years....
Boston Children’s Hospital? Isn’t that the one that Justina Pelletier was at?
“I am very familiar with my local hospitals and have dealt with their incompetence.”
I’ve been seriously mis-diagnosed twice now in the local ER, which I won’t be going back to now that there is a better alternative.
The last time was when I had a kidney infection (unknown to me at that point) about to go sepsis and was dismissed by the head hospital ER doc as just “having a virus”. Two days later, being even sicker, I went to the local clinic across the street, which had just been recently taken over by the state University Hospital system and was instantly diagnosed with a urinary/kidney infection and was prescribed the proper antibiotics to save my life.
Quavi?
I suspect that someone at the emergency clinic thought the baby was dehydrated because the mother was not taking proper care of the baby but wanted a hospital to make the determination. Why would the clinic not be able to treat the baby for dehydration?
Thanks for posting ‘the other side’-—makes a difference
So everyone is as smart as you and knows all about every single hospital and clinic where children can be treated. Some of the people I know aren’t quite that smart.
There are a lot of people in Maryland who think the only children’s hospital in the world is in Baltimore.
Ignorance is bliss.
You’re wrong. You believed her side without thinking .
Not for nothing, but who drives from Pennsylvania to Boston in under five hours?
Well, the woman is a serial offender, she’s got warrents in Mass, Penn and NJ for motor vehicle violations and prostitution. BUT, I will say that I don’t see that she did wrong here, she took a chance and I doubt I would have done it, but it seems that nurse practitioner is just another of the little hitlers whose number seems to be increasing exponentially.
I believe that was a bad diagnosis, at least according to our local news here in Boston. But, from a parent’s point of view, Children’s is like a leap from the frying pan into the fire. I think they have taken possession of the baby a la Pelletier case.
Sure, she’s a negro. To many FReepers, that reason enough to deny her parental rights.
4 hours to Boston = Philly = Philadelphia Children’s Hospital?
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