Here’s a brief article about a young man with cerebral palsy who was admitted to a hospital for bedsores and malnutrition. The story doesn’t contain enough information to determine whether the mother was negligent, but the description of the boy’s condition is alarming. As many parents of children with disabilities will tell you, including my own, raising a child with intense needs can be exhausting. Everything becomes centered on the care of that child. And sometimes, it simply becomes too much for some families. I witnessed minor examples of neglect in some of my friends with disabilities back when I was a kid. Bodies that hadn’t been washed, clothes that hadn’t been changed, etc. It’s not behavior that’s justifiable, but it is understandable, especially considering the slashes in state human services budgets over recent years.
Next month, ABC is airing a television version of A Wrinkle in Time. It’s one of my favorite books, so I really don’t want to be disappointed in this adaptation. But knowing Disney, they’ll screw it up and make it all cutesy. Incidentally, there’s a great profile of Madeleine L’Engle in last week’s New Yorker.
I’m not so sure I agree that it is understandable. My mother raised my brother and I, both with SMA, my father didn’t help and all our family on both sides were and are in different states. Mom never used government help. She was tired, a lot, but I’ve bever had a bed sore and cleanliness was never an issue.
The article does say there were several reported calls to child services.
Sometimes, bad parents are just bad parents.