Dead Babies...To Get It Off My Chest

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I was floating to the ED this AM and everything was peaceful with kidney stones and inflamed bursas when a mother came screaming in with the dreaded blue baby in a carrier. I assisted in coding her for three hours. She had a subdural hematoma and had been shaken. I was dismayed to learn that she had an anoxic brain injury from being shaken several months prior this.

I'm sick.

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Specializes in CDI Supervisor; Formerly NICU.

I'm sorry.

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Specializes in LTC, wound care.

Oh ugh. I am so sorry you (or anyone, really) had to go through this. How sad!

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This makes me sick and ruins my night. Things like this keep me awake at night. It enrages me so I believe I could really hurt someone who would do this to a baby/child. I have no empathy or sympathy for evil. Adults snap and kill each other, evil takes it out on a child.

This bothers me so much I can't think of anything else to say.

What did this putrid bucket of pig slop have to say for herself? I guess she will be walking free, too.

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I'm so sorry that this happened and that you had to go through it. The only consolation is that this poor child will no longer be subjected to the cruelty that caused the injuries in the first place.

Do you know if any charges will be filed?

Do whatever it takes to soothe your own spirit. Pray, if you're so inclined. Have a good cry. Hug a child. Journal. Watch some mindless TV. Take a long, soaking bubble bath.

I don't know if your ED does this, but some places offer group debriefing after a particularly disturbing case. Even if they don't, there should be counseling available through an employee assistance program (EAP). Use this if you find yourself having a hard time coping. That's what it's there for.

Thank you for all you do.

Take care.

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Specializes in Adolescent Psych, PICU.

(((Hugs)))

I worked for almost 2 years in a PICU at a level 1 trauma center and I would see things like this almost everyday. There is just sooooo much child abuse "normal" people don't see or even hear about (in so many different forms, I've seen a 2 year old that was raped).

This is not to "one up" your story, this is about a patient I think about even to this day:

3 year old come to us with his bowels out from a rip on his stomach. Dad says that his older sibling jumped on him while they were playing. Later on the dad left the rest of his kids in the PICU room (left all his kids alone in the ICU while he went to go smoke) and the kids told us that the dad is the one who kicked and jumped on this baby.

I am sooo sorry about your day. It just make you sick and you don't forget these little ones. They are so precious. This is why I am not against the death penalty in cases like this.

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=/ a sick world is a good reason to be a healer.

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This is so tragic, I'm sure we all agree on that....but I'd just like to point out that nowhere does the OP say that the mother was the victimizer. It could very well have been a child care provider or someone else that inflicted the injury to the child. Just something to think about before calling the mother a "putrid bucket of pig slop". She could quite possibly be an innocent grieving mother who just lost her beloved child!!

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Specializes in Infusion Nursing, Home Health Infusion.

I know the feeling. Several years back now I had barely got my foot into our office when another IV nurse said "quick go to the ER..its a baby and I am not good with babies". I grabbed my basket and away I went. it was a beautiful baby boy having non-stop seizures. Apparently, he had been left alone in the tub. i focused on the task at hand and got the line in with one attempt. I was sick for several days and disgusted that he would be left unattended....some people do not deserve to be parents. That is why I can not work in OB. I am not certain I could easily hand babies to idiots.

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This is so tragic, I'm sure we all agree on that....but I'd just like to point out that nowhere does the OP say that the mother was the victimizer. It could very well have been a child care provider or someone else that inflicted the injury to the child. Just something to think about before calling the mother a "putrid bucket of pig slop". She could quite possibly be an innocent grieving mother who just lost her beloved child!!

my thoughts as well.....the result is the same, however.......a dead child that SOMEONE would have dearly loved to have......

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Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.

I live in an area where the foster care system is overwhelmed. They even send drug babies home with parents most of the time.

The reason: It's hard to take them away from the parents when you don't have a place to take the baby.

I would personally like to see a day that if it's proven that a baby has been abused or exposed to drugs, the state should have the authority to speed up an adoption process to the next available pre-approved family awaiting on the list...and have the case closed in less than 30 days...signed, sealed, delivered.

Done deal.

It does far more psychological damage to take these kids in and out of these abusve environments.

I have a friend who was raised by a drug addict mother. She works as a CNA and is trying to get her nursing degree. She was telling me that her mother and her siblings actually lived in a tent for two years and the meal they had at school was often the only meal that they had in a day.

Her siblings..didn't turn out as well as her.

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Specializes in ob; nicu.

And people wonder why we can't help but sometimes take our work home with us. I'm sorry. Hugs from GA

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