Anybody been successful in pursuing a complaint of medical neglect/abuse?
I am about to call the state about a child being medically neglected/abused. Any pointers anybody can give me who has been successful in pursuing this course of action?
In a nutshell, the child has a treatable medical condition and the parents are too lazy/cheap to do anything about it. She was born with it, is now almost 3 and has had no positive intervention. She is now nearly crippled, for no reason. Doctors have said it can be treated, there is a hospital nearby that will treat for free. Parents are too lazy and controlling to get it done, plus they don't want to be out of pocket any money.
Unfortunately, parents are savvy enough that they are going to try and claim religious exemption. This is bogus, as the mom gets medical treatment whenever she feels sick. The religion she was raised in does NOT teach to avoid medical care. And their own pastor told them to get the child treated. So religion is a cop-out and NOT the real reason.
I need any pointers I can get to help sway this in the child's favor. I can't stand seeing her become a cripple because of the crappy parents she has.
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Call Child Protective
Call Child Protective Services or whatever you have in your state.
Yeah, that is what I will do,
Yeah, that is what I will do, but it has happened before and they did nothing, so I'm hoping to go in armed with some tactics to get them to take it more seriously. Trust me, nobody who saw this child and knew it was a treatable condition would be able to let her rest on their conscience. The parents have done nothing to adapt her environment to make it easy for her. But it seems that unless you're actively beating a child and have the cuts and bruises to show for it, CPS is unwilling to get involved.
I would call CPS and if you
I would call CPS and if you can provide them the Dr and the Pastor names to help them with their investigation.
We've been involved in a CPS
We've been involved in a CPS medical neglect investigation. BM did not bring SS10 to the hospital while having a severe asthma attack. He almost died. BM thought it more important to text DH to come get SS and drive him than to call an ambulance herself. Long story short, Fire Commander was on the ambulance crew, he reported the lack of concern of BM to the police, police interviewed Drs, nurses and DH at the hospital and then contacted BM. BM never showed up to the hospital until the next day. CPS was called when it was evident that BM was not going to the hospital. We never initiated the contact with CPS.
CPS in your area should be alerted to the severity of the child's health issues. Does this child go to school? Does she go to the Drs? They are first reporters, if they have reported it and CPS has done nothing, I'm not sure what to say. Frustrating and heartbreaking to see a child not be cared for medically while the parents do nothing. I'd call or report to CPS weekly.
Our experience with CPS was that they were overworked and overwhelmed with cases but their primary goal was to make sure that the child(ren) were safe, their health needs met and that they were not in danger.
Our unfortunate problem is
Our unfortunate problem is that they sequester this child at home to minimize her contact with people who might disapprove of how they are NOT dealing with her issues. I don't even know when is the last time she saw a doctor, they do not intend to send her to school at all. She is falling through the cracks. This is a condition that is not life-threatening, so doctors are not mandatory reporters. They want to see her treated and have sent registered letters asking the mother to bring the child back to the hospital, but she ignores them.
3 prongs. 1.Go (don't call)
3 prongs. 1.Go (don't call) to your nearest police station and file a report. 2.Go to the hospital you mentioned and talk to the patient advocate. They can be surprisingly helpful. 3. CPS. Let them know that you had contacted them before. Good luck; this is awful and you might be that kids' savior. I like you Elizabeth.
We've even had a doctor call
We've even had a doctor call cps over neglect on BM. CPS did nothing We have finally at least gotten them temporarily out of an abuse situation by RO because CPS ignored repeated reports by SO, myself, school and neighbors. The court has now contacted CPS so we'll see I just want SO to have full legal for those kids sake