One child’s face was so swollen that his eyes were slits and his pudgy arms could barely move. The parents had taken him to the doctor several times and were sent away with advice to watch what he ate. After several weeks, the swelling was so bad, the mother took him to the emergency room in the middle of the night. A woman doctor in the last hour of her shift asked if the child had had any blood tests because it looked to her as if the child might be suffering from a kidney malfunction. He was. This was the first time a blood test was suggested. In the year of listening to the doctor who accepted Medicaid patients, these parents finally realized that perhaps they were not getting the same care as other parents facing a similar situation. Maybe that’s unfair. But, I have seen it a number of times in my work with low-income families. The doctor says to our staff, “Wait until the seizure lasts four minutes before calling 911.” Four minutes. What medical school did that doctor attend? This child is 7 months old! What about the obviously vacant eyed child who had been sexually abused by her father since she was months old? Barely verbal, eating her feces and running from everyone at age 3. On the physical form signed by the doctor was written “Grossly Normal.” Not having run across that term before, I called his office to inquire what that meant. I was told that the child exhibited such normal behavior that no one could think by looking at her that she was anything but normal.
On what planet?
This is what our children are dealing with on a regular basis. How could we NOT try to help them??
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