As a first line physician in ED, I had to deal with family violence case from time to time. I had seen simple contusion to severe case ended up in ICU. However for pediatric trauma cases, we were to stay alert as most of the victims were brought in by the persecutor.
The kid was
brought in by his father with a swollen elbow. I had been a detail questioner;
always asking detail so that I could compose a nice and lengthy history. The
father however had shown a hostile manner when I asked him about the detail of
how the kid had fallen. The act had instantly raised my suspicious of family
violence. I had told the father politely that I had to evaluate the story and
construct a trauma mechanism so that I wouldn’t missed out any possible hidden
trauma.
It was partially
true as I need to dig the story out. If the story was false, you would find
inconsistent content and conflicting statement.
The triage nurse
had later came to me and told me that the kid had told her that he was beaten
by his mother when his father was making a call. Well, I told the triage nurse
to call the police.
The kid was isolated
to the resus room after the xray and the police came minutes after the xray
shown up on my pacs system. A fracture was noted over the elbow and the police
was introduced to the father. I told the father straight that I knew the
incident from the beginning and this was against the law.
I told the young cop
who came with his colleague that the kid needed to be sheltered tonight. It was
almost 11 when the police finished the interrogation and told me that he would
bring the kid back to the station and hand over to the social service for
custody.
Well, everything
seems nice. I was actually tied up at that time as 3 chest pain patients had
poured into ED and I had a few a trauma patients to attend to at that time. By 12
midnight, the young cop had however came back to me and told that the kid was
released back to the father for care as the social service felt that no shelter
service was needed. I couldn’t believe my ears and told the young cop I would call
up his senior/social service and tried to make things right.
I had called up
the social worker on call and he told me that the shelter plan was rejected by
his supervisor even though he opposed with the decision. I told him that I need
to speak with the supervisor and tried to push for the sheltering the kid.
The supervisor had
called me back moments later as the social worker on call said that he would relate
my message to his supervisor and asked me to wait.
The call back was received
about 15 minutes later. The supervisor said that they had handed over the kid
back to his father so that he could be protected by his father at his home. Protected
my ASS, I grumbled in my heart and trying my best not to burst out any would
stating with F and ending with K. I asked the supervisor did them interview the
kid and his father tonight. She told me that they had conversation over the
phone while they were placed in the police station. I asked the supervisor had
she heard the conversation of the father calling the mother while they were in
ED. They supervisor just kept quiet. I told her that I would not tell her what
was that content and that was very crucial for the shelter order to be issued.
I further told the supervisor that I had glanced through the kid medical chart
and found that he was admitted 8 months ago after he ingested some detergent in
the house. The kid was later referred to a medical center and suspect of child
abuse was impressed at the time. The supervisor asked me that did we report the
case as she had not received any report while reviewing the case just now. I
replied that I was not the attending physician and did not know about the condition.
She immediately told me that than the social service department would fine us
as we fail to do so. Wow, I was irritated by her act and told her that it was
her jurisdiction to do so but I demanded that the kid to be sheltered tonight
as I felt that he would be in danger further more how could the social service
made such reckless decision without even seeing the case in person. The
supervisor had however had told me that they would visit the case tomorrow
morning and avoiding my question. I was tired of her bringing me rounding the
park tactic and told her that I strongly suggest that the kid to be sheltered
and hung up.
It was 3am when
most of the patients were cleared out from the ED.
I spent another 30
mins written a long complaint letter to the email of county director of social
service. I went off at 8am that morning, slept till afternoon and woke up
wasting my life as a couch potato that day.
The next day was Monday
after the morning patient rush, I decided to called up the local police officer
in charge of the domestic violence division.
He told me that the
kid was still under care of his parents and he was frustrated as I was because
he could do nothing to change the situation.
I called up the
director’s office and told the secretary to check the email and referred the
matter ASAP.
1 hour later, I
received a call from the domestic violence section head. She had looked into
the matter and apologized for what had happened. She told me that they had
visited the kid the next day and the family had only opened the door at 10am. I
replied the section head that this was the best proof that they family could
not provide any proper care. The parents had slept through the morning without
proper feeding the pain killer to the kid in the morning. Well, however the
section promised me that in the future they would see the victim before any
decision is made. I told her the supervisor threat was the most irritating part
as I was the civilian and the official had tried her best not to make things
right but tried to threaten me just to fence the incident off.
Later in the afternoon,
I got a call from the director herself. It was quit embarrassing as she had
apologized and thanked me again which I thought was unnecessary as all I wanted
was proper care of the kid.
Well, I had felt
not right after the incident and brought all of my AR and Glock to the shooting
range and sprayed thousand of round of BB that weekend.
I had however read
through some info after the incident. The country social service was evaluated
by the Convention of the children right in 2017, the committee had found that
the shelter rate of abuse children was too high and since then the social service
of all county had tried their best to reduce sheltering abuse children. Really pain
in the Axx and the local children protection alliance had objected multiple
times regarding the government of reducing sheltering rate.
Well, I had told
myself if the we had a rotten policy than I shall walk the edge and try
something…
Next time I would
keep the kid in ED/ward until daylight where I could face the social service
and tried my best to fight for something better……
