My Daughter Was Assaulted in a Hospital. Body Cams Could Have Brought Us Justice. TRIGGER WARNING

My Daughter Was Assaulted in a Hospital. Body Cams Could Have Brought Us Justice. TRIGGER WARNING
PUBLISHED 6/29/2024 by Anonymous



emergency-room-body-cameras-child-abuse-assault(Cavan Images / Getty)

Editor’s note: This essay contains references to child abuse and sexual violence.

I knew my child was a fighter her first night home when she went wild boar on my chest to get at my breasts. Like her ancestors before her, she was a survivor. I’m glad I didn’t know then all that she would endure. When she was 16 months old, she had a cold with a fever. The neighbor’s baby, the same age, also had the symptoms. We had all hung out during the day with us moms putting them down for naps, giving them children’s Tylenol and watching them play.

That evening, I made the mistake of putting her in a long-sleeved onesie. Her febrile, or feverish, seizure began while I was nursing her—she was choking on my milk. I was terrified. I ran out of our apartment with her in my arms, screaming for help. She looked purple. The seizures stopped and I instinctively patted her on the back to stop the choking. One of my neighbors, a nurse, put us in the car and drove us to the emergency room. Once there, they gave me paperwork describing a febrile seizure. They made it clear that a febrile seizure was the result of a fever spiking and was unlikely to cause permanent damage. I was tremendously relieved. If only the danger of that evening had ended there. The medical staff did not want to release us until she was given a catheter in case there was a UTI. They never told me that catheters to check for UTIs can lead to UTIs or that UTIs were not commonly associated with a fever in infants.

My daughter is remarkably strong. She kicked her legs and did assisted presses into standing from nearly birth. She was an early walker and an early talker. She was savvy for a 16-month-old, and she knew a kind and nurturing environment. The hospital room was not a nurturing nor safe environment for her that evening. The first round of violence included several medical personnel attempting to hold her down and insert the catheter. The catheter insertion did not go in. She used her strong legs, arms and core—her entire body—to reject what they were doing to her. She made her body completely rigid. She was crying. I was pleading with them, Can we please not do this? But they kept at it. What was a traumatic event spiraled out of my control and into abuse. One male healthcare worker in particular seemed to relish in the power of being “in charge.” He and I were in a battle; the more I tried to protect my daughter from him inserting this apparatus into her urethra, the more he insisted upon doing it. He discounted the 16-month-old patient on the bed in front of him. He had all the power.

Afterward, they told me they were unable to get a catheter, so they would wait to see if she urinated during the next hour—as if she would be able to vacate normally immediately after that violation. We were never offered the non-invasive alternative of urinating before the attempt at a forced catheter. She did not do what they needed her to do in that timeframe and a small group of them came back. I cried and screamed inside as my daughter was assaulted again. They held her down and forced the catheter into her. She screamed on the outside. She buckled her body. She went entirely stiff. She cried, she yelled. We cried and tried to resist. We were not successful, neither were they. They told me they had still not gotten a catheter but they had caused bleeding. I did not know the language, “I refuse these medical services,” to intervene on behalf of my daughter. Six people assaulted or aided the assault on my daughter for no medical outcome.

. . .


Especially when male doctors are going to be in the vicinity of female private parts, there must be consent, at all ages, at all times. If the ER staff wore body cams, if I had a video of that hospital room to offer as evidence of the sexual assault of a minor—a toddler—as evidence that the Hippocratic oath was breached, then I would be less likely to be seen as a mother overreacting. We would have a pathway to achieve a modicum of justice. Without it, I am just another mother of a child who can say #MeToo.

RAINN, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, has a 24/7 hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673) and a chatline at online.rainn.org.


https://msmagazine.com/2024/06/29/emergency-room-body-cameras-child-abuse-assault/