It’s been a while since I have posted on this blog. Things have been busy. This past weekend I presented at the 10th Annual Juris Educational Resource Knowledge Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina. That’s right, the JERK Conference. That is it’s actual name. Some of those not so close to me may say that’s appropriate. 🙂 Mainly legal nurses attended this conference. We had a really good discussion about medical child abuse and I believe some eyes were opened.
Way back in June of this year, I presented in Douglas County, CO for their Child Advocacy Center and their partners. I did consult on a particularly disturbing case of medical child abuse while I was there. The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office detectives had already done so many things right on that case before my consultation. They aggressively investigated a report of medical child abuse that included a death, and did so from the start of the investigation, which is so very important. Their investigation culminated last week with a 13 count indictment, including two counts of murder for one victim. They did great job on very difficult case. I have posted a link to a media article on this case at the end of this blog post.
The Colorado case shows just how far this abuse can go. She allegedly killed one child and she was allegedly starting in on another when her crimes were discovered. There are several children’s hospitals nationally that have started programs to address this abuse. They are seeing surprising numbers of referrals for suspicions of this abuse. Children’s Hospitals that do not have a system set up to address this abuse are leaving themselves wide open for civil litigation from both the alleged offender (claiming a false report of abuse) and also wide open for litigation from a protective father who believes the offender is abusing the victim.
Again, a great job by members of the Douglas County (CO) Sheriff’s Office in bringing this alleged offender to the brink of justice.
