My friend, Mo, emailed me the other day requesting support for her good friend, Michele Davidson. Michele gave birth to a son back in May, 2007, who, due to delays in the delivery, is now a quadriplegic and suffers from severe birth defects. This past spring, Michele, allegedly, entered her doctor and his wife's home with a gun and threatened to kill herself. But first, they would have to wait as long as she did to give birth, which I understand from news reports to be an hour and a half. The doctor's 11 year old child was able to escape and called police. Michele is now in jail awaiting bond, which she's been denied three times. She has not seen any of her children since May.
This headline and all of the above info is available in the Washington Post. Please read the story which I linked to up there ^. It will give you a detailed account of what happened and both sides of the story.
I know Michele. Not as closely as my friend Mo, who considers her one of her good friends. But, I have hung out with her a few times with Mo. If I had not left Virginia for Florida, I may have become better friends with her. The few times I met her I had a fun time and really enjoyed talking to her. She came across as a really good and caring person. E seemed to get along with her husband pretty well, too. And, I trust Mo's taste in friends. She and her husband are good people who I know would not hang with unsavory types.
I am writing this post as dry as possible for a reason. I want your opinion on this story without any influence from my comments. Who do you think is at fault here?
ETA: Maybe the question isn't who is at fault. Obviously, there are a lot of unanswered questions in the story that I have provided. I don't have the full story, only what has been made available to me. The better question may be how can we make the system better? On both sides?
ETAA: Oh, come on., leave a comment! I've had a slew of new visitors, and I know you have opinions. I truly want to hear them regardless of the point of view.
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4 comments:
You ask "who is at fault?" But I question at fault for what? There are details of the story missing - why did it take the Doctor an hour and a half to arrive at the hospital? Was that a reasonable amount of time? Was there traffic? We don't know. We also don't know if that poor baby would have had this disability even if he had been delivered in the 30 minute decision to incision case.
The Dr. is however responsible for keeping up with his malpractice or whatever type of insurance was necessary for the family to receive assistance. A ruling is still pending on that but I am sure the judge will rule in favor of the family since the contract they signed said the Dr. had this insurance.
It is unfortunate but Michelle did commit a crime. Blame it on postpartum depression but a person can not go into someone's home with a loaded gun and threaten violence.
I am not sure why she is still in jail, perhaps she is unable to make bond. But this seems like a very clear case for some mental health intervention. i
I feel badly for all parties involved but am loathe to place blame on anyone.
You're right, Mekhismom. Maybe I didn't ask the right question. I was looking for comments and what people thought about both sides of the argument. I have my own opinion, but I want honest back and forth here which is why I worded it the way I did.
Thanks for your comment!
I agree with Mekhismom... I'm not sure what to think about the whole fault thing because what is the actual crime here?
I think this is a clear cut case of a mom who was probably suffering from a severe case of postpartum depression and just lost her shit. It appears from the story that from the moment she showed up at their house she posed no harm to them... and that she made that clear. She was posing harm to herself though and to me this screams that she needs help coping with everything that life has dealt her. She just did it in the wrong way and she will now have to suffer the consequences, but I don't think that they should be too severe considering her obvious mental state.
The doctor should certainly have to offer up some sort of restitution for the pain that he has not only inflicted upon a baby, but on the entire family who is now suffering as a result.
I hope that you will keep us updated on this story. It is very interesting to me and I'd like to know how it pans out.
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