Mood- angry, frustrated and sad
Health- challenged
Yesterday I found a news article from July 10, 2011 (http://beta.clarionledger.com/article/20110710/NEWS/307100001/1002/news01) telling how a young military family had their child taken away because their child has Gastroparesis (delayed gastric emptying IS Gastroparesis) because the Department of Human Services is blaming the parents for causing the symptoms OF Gastroparesis.
This is why I write this blog no matter how rotten I feel... this is why I fight so hard to try to raise awareness of Gastroparesis and other Digestive Tract Paralysis conditions... because travesties like this occur!
Ignorance of the condition has ripped a young military family apart... instead of the doctors knowing enough about the condition to help the parents properly care for their poor baby the doctor and DHS are ignorant enough to blame the parents and cause untold emotional and psychological harm.
I am furious... I am saddened and I am contacting everyone I can think of to try to help this family not only get their child returned but to also help them find the specialists they need to help them care for their child properly.
This is a very early edition of my blog because I want to reach as many people as possible and I need the help of everyone who reads this to get the word out so that things like this do not happen again.
Think this could not happen again? Think this has not happened in the past?
I am going to close out this blog with something a friend (part of the Gastroparesis support group I belong to on Facebook) said about this news story showing that it has happened and unless we take a stand and fight for awareness it will happen again-
"Outrageous! I feel sick reading this, especially since this could have happened to me and my parents. I was send to UCLA for definitive diagnosing when I was 5. We found out only a few years ago that they were also testing my mom for Munchhausen by Proxy. Obviously, my parents weren't making it up, but still they could have believed they were like they did to these parents. SO SAD!"
Nathanial is going to be 3 on september 30, 2011. since he was 13 months old, he has been tossed from one foster family to another.
ReplyDeleteat 13 months old, he lost alot of weight, and his parents were so worried. but instead of helping, the doctors accused the parents of starving their son, and called dhs.
dhs did not do any research or investigation to see if the accusations were founded in truth or myth.
the third foster placement he was placed in, was with his maternal grand parents in New Mexico.
while he was in new mexico for 6 months he was seen by a pediatric pulminologist when it was suspected he had cystic fibrosis. the releif was indescribable when the test was negative, but Nathanial was still exhibiting symptoms of something. the pediatric pulminologist wanted to truely help Nathanial, so she referred him to a colleuge of hers who is a pediatric gastroenterologist. the pediatric gi ran several tests, and diagnosed him with food aversion, gerd, and slow gastric emtying.
nathanial was then returned to his famly in mississippi, and then ordered to see a specific pediatritian, picked out by dhs.
this pediatrition has denied he has any gastroenterological problems, despite seeing all the medical records that says he does. the pediatrition changed his diet that the pediatric gi had him on, and then when nathanial lost weight 13 days after the diet change, she called dhs and told them these were horrible parents who starved their son again.
now nathanial is in yet another foster home, and his dad is deployed to iraq with the military.
every day his mom fights to have him returned, and she loves her son so much, it hurts to be away from him like this.