How do you cope with child abuse?

Published

My friends,

I sobbed today after reading in the paper about a mother in Texas who had CUT OFF her 10 month-old daughter's ARMS because she thought God wanted her to. HOW CAN PEOPLE DO THIS??????? That baby screamed, bled to death and suffered until the Lord took her home. I can't BELIEVE the things people do to innocent children. How do you cope with knowing a patient of yours is in a dangerously abusive situation? I am emotionally traumatized just from reading this newspaper article.

Specializes in L&D.
for all of the reasons in the past posts in this thread, i couldn't work peds or er - it was bad enough when i worked ob and had to send fresh clean beautiful babies home with scary people - i'd see those same kids later on when their mom had another baby and it was heartbreaking to see them with dirty faces and yucky clothes and chronically running noses............

and how come the boyfriend/stepfather abusers are always unemployed and mean and frustrated about whatever frustrates those losers and are then expected to babysit some defenseless child and the beating/death happens when the mother is at work? i have a hard time with women who pick some degenerate alcoholic druggie with no job over their own flesh and blood - i love my husband (and he is actually a better parent than me :p) but i've told him "if it ever came down to where i had to pick between you and the kids, you are sunk. no offense, but you're not blood and those kids actually grew inside of me........." and it just kills me that not all women are like that.........(however, i don't know why i'm ever surprised - it's not like child abuse is new and infanticide can be found way back in history - women missing that "maternal" gene thing is not a new thing - also, sad that animals can always be counted on to take care of their children and protect them from harm - maybe we're the real animals???)

what also blows me away is these mothers act as if nothing is going on, or defend the abuser. my stepfather used to beat the crap out of me when i was a kid. same story--he was always either marginally employed or completely unemployed and was a closet alcoholic.

the mothers really need to step up to the plate and protect their children. it is so sad that so many don't. i pray that god himself gives these children strength and the foresight of a brighter future, even if the only bright future that they may have is the one with him.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

People that abuse children are in my opinion absolute evil. It makes me sick to hear of these monsters that molest children, are let go with a slap on the wrist only to offend again. except this time they kill their victim so that there will be no witness.

Or those worthless deadbeats who beat up little kids-I hope they all meet their match someday.

I only hope that if I am ever witness to child abuse that I have the courage to intervene and the restraint not to go overboard.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Onc/Hem, School/Community.
yes, they should absolutely be held accountable for their crimes!!! in most trials their defense is that they couldn't judge right from wrong b/c of their mental illness. so, let's let them back out into society and wait for another situation to occur where once again their mental illness/inability to judge takes over and someone else is killed? my vote is no!!!! these people should (at the very least) be commited to high security mental hospitals.

i especially agree with you re: andrea yates. her numerous physicians kept telling her not to have more children and to stay on meds. she didn't take her meds, home-schooled her children, and kept having more. so, yes, she should be held accountable. however, i also feel the father should be held accountable too. he let that pressure cooker around those poor children. he knew she was mentally ill and let the situation continue.

p.s. i am all for home-schooling, just not in her case.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Yup and Andrea Yates (the woman who drowned her five children) has been granted a new trial also. I guess it all boils down to this debate: Should the mentally ill be held accountable for their crimes?[/quote']

Yes, they should. But, as a Houstonian who followed this story in the local news, I would rather err on the side of sending a sane criminal to a mental institution, than a mentally ill criminal to prison.

Either way, Andrea will lose her freedom for a long time, but at least in a hospital she will get the help she needs. I could see in the videos she was a loving mother. She had to be crazy to kill those beautiful babies the way she did.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Looking for a career in NICU.
Yes, they should. But, as a Houstonian who followed this story in the local news, I would rather err on the side of sending a sane criminal to a mental institution, than a mentally ill criminal to prison.

Either way, Andrea will lose her freedom for a long time, but at least in a hospital she will get the help she needs. I could see in the videos she was a loving mother. She had to be crazy to kill those beautiful babies the way she did.

I agree. I personally thought Andrea Yates was about as insane as they come. I didn't feel that prison was the right place for her, but I also didn't think she should be left free either. She is in a hospital and that is where she needs to be. She was not receiving any medication in prison before and was left to drown in her own psychosis. I think that's cruel.

I also think her husband should have been charged, at minimum, with child neglect for leaving his children with someone that had just got out of the mental hospital a few weeks prior.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

:angryfire :angryfire And there are women out there that cannot have children.........like myself......and then you read stuff like this, it makes me so angry. :angryfire :angryfire

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion