[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
When I was in Oregon to gather pictures and momentos from my in-laws' estate
and sell household assets, I talked to my sister Mary for the first time
about the au pair case. Mary has been long retired but she has deep
feelings about hematomas. Her very first day on the job as a registered
nurse she called the desk somewhat panicky to report she was getting no
response from a patient. The head nurse told her the man was not supposed
to be disturbed and she should leave the man alone. A stormy argument
followed and eventually the man's doctor was summoned much to the disgust of
her boss. Mary naturally felt all her efforts in training being put in
jeopardy without even a single full day - well, night - on the job.
To make a long story short, Mary's panicky action had saved the man's life.
His life was about to expire because of a subdural hematoma. She credited a
quick rise for herself to head nurse for the incident.
Mary has a thing about hematomas. She was in absolute agreement with me.
The evidence of weeks' old healing of the skull fracture in Matthew Eappen
was indisputable though denied by the prosecutors to this day. The fact of
fractures in both the skull and wrist of Matthew Eappen should have raised
the suspicion of those who wanted to know the truth, especially in a
developmentally delayed infant. The scurrilous claim that that only meant
that the au pair must have caused them falls flat on its face.
The best experts available found there was a significant possibility that
the death of Matthew Eappen resulted from an earlier injury. That a
subdural hematoma had not been previously known to have caused death after
weeks in an infant though it has after a number of days has been well
publicized as well as the fact that elderly patients have died from such
effects after over a year. This hardly precludes it from having happened
this time or many other times. Medicine is, of necessity, an observational
science.
Now Mary was only a nurse and we all know nurses know nothing. :-} But she
did save a life over one of these damn things. Because she didn't listen to
higher authority.
Best, Terry
"Lawyer - one trained to circumvent the law" - The Devil's Dictionary
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