News :: Opinion
Don't Let Victim Of Brutal Crime Be Warehoused
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: June 8, 2008
How is it that we can treat an innocent victim like this? Someone needs to tell me the answer to this one.
Every day now - every day - the woman with the clipboard - a social worker - comes into the hospital room and tells the mother that her daughter needs to go. The mother, who has not left her daughter's side for six weeks, is exhausted and afraid for her daughter. She is not about to give up and not about to leave.
The daughter does not argue. She cannot.
You already know part of the story. In a season of violence, hers was the most horrific of them all.
It happened April 24, two days after the young woman turned 18. Earlier in the day everything had been going so well in her life. She had been shopping for shoes with her friends. They were going to the beach to celebrate a birthday and graduation and the beginning of the next stage of her life.
She had been accepted into the University of Florida with a full scholarship; her family was so proud of a daughter who was overflowing with life.
But much later that evening, she decided to stop by the Bloomingdale Regional Public Library to return some books in the drop box. As she drove up, she told a friend she was talking to on her cell phone that a suspicious person seemed to be hanging around. Her friend advised her to stay in the car. A moment later, her friend heard the screams.
Brutality And Its Aftermath
Law enforcement officers think they know what happened next in a violent, brutal attack on the young woman, who was slammed against a wall, beaten and left half-naked in nearby bushes.
Sheriff's deputies soon arrested 16-year-old Kendrick Morris. He faces charges of kidnapping, aggravated battery with great bodily harm and sexual battery with injury. After he was arrested, investigators found evidence they say links him to the rape of another woman. He is in Orient Road Jail.
The young woman was briefly conscious when the sheriff's deputies arrived at the library. She has been in an induced coma for weeks as doctors deal with swelling of her brain and other severe injuries.
The mother says that it was only last week that her daughter had a seizure, and she is too unstable to be moved to some facility where there are no specialists and no rehabilitation.
'She Reacts,' Her Mother Says
The attack was seven weeks ago. The story disappeared from the news, and we all moved on.
Not the young woman. She was in the intensive-care unit for weeks. All the while, her mother stayed at her side and slept in a chair at night. Her father slept in the family van parked in the emergency room lot.
Doctors have told the mother they do not know the extent of the damage and may not for months.
"She reacts when her friends come in," her mother says. "She smiles or cries when they are gone. She still cannot speak, but I know she hears them."
Remember that this is a mother speaking, a mother who may understandably see things that others do not.
What frightens the mother is that everyone is forgetting her daughter, including the caregivers. She says the hospital wants her to move her daughter to another facility, a nursing home where, the mother thinks, she will vegetate and be forgotten.
This is a difficult story on many levels. I'm writing this on an emotional level, about a life and death issue that in our brave new world of technology seems more and more common.
Tampa General Hospital is not even the decision-maker here. In fact, the hospital cannot even acknowledge that the young woman is in its facility.
John Dunn, a TGH spokesman, could only talk generally about hospital policies.
"Generally speaking," he said, "the decision to discharge patients is made by a physician who is following a medical treatment plan. Patients are usually discharged when they have completed that medical plan or the doctor concludes there is nothing more medically that can be done. Only then are arrangements made to put the patient in a more appropriate setting."
Waiting For A Sign
The young woman lies quietly in the hospital bed. Her wounds and injuries are covered by blankets and a few soft stuffed animals left by friends. One eye socket, cracked in the beating, appears normal as she sleeps.
Over by the window, the mother has a cot she has been sleeping on since her daughter was moved to a solitary room. Above the cot on the sill are pictures of better times. She leaves the room only when a relative comes to give her a break. "I don't want her waking up and not having me there," the mother says.
The family business she works at is suffering. Everything in the family's life has come to a standstill as they wait for a sign, maybe even a miracle.
I walked into the hospital's gift shop and found a couple of workers from the state attorney's office. They deal with sex crimes and aid to the families of victims. They were buying a stuffed animal for the girl. When I asked them about the situation, one of the women had tears in her eyes.
Only The Very Best
There aren't any easy answers. But I can give you a couple of thoughts. The young woman is a victim of a horrid crime. She was among the most promising of our youths. Now the only answer seems to be to send her off to be warehoused until - if ever - something happens.
And maybe medically and rationally that is the appropriate answer.
I just can't buy it. I think we are better than that, even to the point of giving her every opportunity when there may be no opportunities to give. She deserves everything we can provide, and she needs more than a social worker coming into the room once a day and harassing a distraught mother - wondering why she hasn't left.
If Tampa General doesn't have a bed for this woman, she needs to go to a facility that is beyond warehousing, a place where she is seen and treated by our very best.
Keyword: Otto Graphs, for more of Steve Otto's musings.
ADVERTISEMENT
Advertisement
TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online Member Agreement | Privacy Statement | Work With Us
