What a mess! HELP!!!

[WitchyOoman]

I need to know HOW to address a touchy family situation... hopefully BEFORE it becomes a State of Georgia Child Protection situation... although it may already be too late for that. sigh

My Uncle (Mother's younger brother) and his second wife, whom I call Aunt, have custody of Aunt's grandchildren. I don't know the entire story there... but the Court deemed their natural mother unfit and their father abandoned them. My Aunt asked my Uncle if she could take them in and raise them rather than let the State of Georgia take them... and Uncle agreed... they successfully petitioned the Court (only God knows HOW THAT happened, as Uncle is one of the least educated persons I've ever met, and Aunt and Uncle are both disabled and collect disability, and they're dirt-poor and live on State aid and Disability plus the charity of the Seventh Day Adventist Church... but it happened) I mean, for heaven's sake, they live in a freakin' trailer! Two adults, 5 children, and 3 dogs,plus god nows how many cats - all in a double-wide trailer... :-x Anyhoo.....

Somehow, the 2-yr-old girl got hold of her 8-yr-old boy's ADHD meds, and took some. They don't know how much. I still can't understand WHY they can't just count the remaining pills and know how many were swallowed... how hard is that??? They found the girl unconscious and rushed her to the local hospital E.R.

At the hospital they couldn't wake the girl up. Now I know absolutely NOTHING abut ADHD or ADHD meds... but the doctor says that the meds she consumed have put her body into a coma and they must essentially drain all of her bodily fluids and replace them with donor fluids to rid her body of the stuff which, they hope, will permit her body to wake up. Aunt and Uncle are reluctant to permit this; they fear HIV/AIDS. They called me (I am almost the family Matriarch now, Uncle Ed - our Patriarch - will soon step aside for me to step up) so that I should tell them what they should do... that's what a Matriarch does - tells her family members what is best for them to do. I told them that they have no choice, that they must sign the papers to permit the doctors to do the fluids replacement procedure, and that the chance of her contracting HIV or AIDS via blood transfusion, these days, is minuscule - something like 3% or 5%... and that the baby is already in a coma and will remain a permanent vegetable if we do not act NOW, and we are talking about a small tiny chance that the baby might contract a disease that is treatable (not curable, but treatable), and that many people live with HIV and still live long and productive lives... but if we do not do the procedure, the baby is certain to die or live as a permanent brain-dead human vegetable.

All of this is harshly put, yet it is the truth. There is no time for niceties. Besides this particular Uncle does not respond well to politely-worded things - he argues with polite words. He is out of time. There is no more time. And it is HIS fault in the first place that there is no time. So I have dispensed with kindness, out of necessity.

Not only must I convince them to sign those medical papers... I must figure out how to keep a full-blown investigation from taking the children from Aunt and Uncle, too. It would KILL Aunt! Just KILL her.

I know that the hospital staff must have already alerted law enforcement. After all... even I want to know just how did a 2-yr-old get her hands on pills that should have been (1) in a bottle with a child-proof cap that was (2) locked up and/or (3) in a place far too high for a baby to reach??? Think about it.

I didn't yet ask the question of Aunt and Uncle. But it's gonna have to be asked. I hope there's enough time for me to ask it before law enforcement asks...

I wonder if I should do as Uncle has been asking of me for the past few hours: Should I hop a Greyhound bus and go down there to Savannah to straighten things out?? Will it matter if I'm down there - as opposed to up here by phone?

Starting out as Matriarch with a real BANG!, aren't I? :-/

[kia027]

were the meds liquid or chewable? They make them that way for kids and could be just a simple mistake they were left out.. (adhd kids can distract others and themselves you know). I would just call and work it out over the phone.

[Peasie]

I don't understand what your question is. Is it:

a. Should the comatose baby get the fluids replacement procedure in order to live?

or

b. How did the comatose baby get the ADHD meds?

[kia027]

I don't understand what your question is. Is it:

a. Should the comatose baby get the fluids replacement procedure in order to live?

or

b. How did the comatose baby get the ADHD meds?

I think it is both Pease

[Peasie]

I think it is criminal to deny a child a chance to live a healthy life unless you are refusing for religious reasons ... and even then ...
So get on it and stop wondering what to do!
It is likely there will be an investigation of some sort. Unless the State of Georgia is that negligent

[FrenchTickla]

peasie it sound like witchy agree that that's the right course of action. she just can't convince the family and she a wonder if she need fi guh dung deh and kick some *** to get dem fi sign di papers.

i think the aunt and uncle may not be equipped and them may need assistance with the kids or if worse comes to worse have the kids placed elsewhere. sadly.

i hope the little girl bounce back.

witchy they may not be able to tell how much she took if them wasn't dispensing the pills religiously. as someone who sometimes figet or just don't bodda to tek mi meds, i know this is the best way to lose track.

[Peasie]

Oh I see. It was hard for me to follow what Witchy wrote. I'll read closer next time.

[WitchyOoman]

peasie it sound like witchy agree that that's the right course of action. she just can't convince the family and she a wonder if she need fi guh dung deh and kick some *** to get dem fi sign di papers.

i think the aunt and uncle may not be equipped and them may need assistance with the kids or if worse comes to worse have the kids placed elsewhere. sadly.

i hope the little girl bounce back.

witchy they may not be able to tell how much she took if them wasn't dispensing the pills religiously. as someone who sometimes figet or just don't bodda to tek mi meds, i know this is the best way to lose track.

Peasie, ^ this. French Tickla got the rightt of it.

I took a train down to Philly, and caught dirt-cheap flight down to Savannah. (Who the hell says it's nice down there in Savannah? All I saw was white trash people living in sub-standard conditions in trailers in a disgustingly filthy and vile trailer park! -- And those are my relatives! I hardly am willing to own up to being related to them... and that only by marriage, thanks be to God! )

Anyhow, they signed the papers at the hospital, my little cousin got her total blood transfusion, and hours after they drained all of her blood and replaced it, she woke up out of her coma. She wants to go home. She can't yet, but it's a great sign that she wants to!

My family got it's Christmas miracle this year!

Thank you, Father, for Your great love. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for Your great Mercy. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for keeping me from murdering my uncle and my aunt and my cousins (the parents). Thank you, Blessed Mother, for guiding me and for providing me with a clear role model to follow and to strive to imitate. Did you never have to deal with such uneducated morons in your day, Mother Mary? How can I deal with them better in the future? Can't you please give me some guidance in that, also? Please?? I give thanks in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy spirit, Amen.


Peasie, do you seriously think that I - of all people - would wonder whether or not to give potential life-saving treatment to an otherwise brain-dead baby?????
I??? Who put it to my family this way: "Let's think about this, now. We're weighing two options. One is a brain-dead child who will have permanent brain-death soon. The other is to take a very minor, very infinitesimally small risk of possible HIV infection - something like less than 2% - and HIV is treatable... not curable, but it is treatable. And millions of people with HIV still lead productive lives. No one who is brain-dead leads a productive life because human vegetables aren't productive. Now, if I had to wager on those odds... I'd lay my last dollar AND the deed to my house AND the money and all assets in our retirement portfolio on the blood transfusion not killing me. It's just a no-brainer for me, And it should be for you, too. It's a no-brainer for anybody with two brain cells to rub together, actually. You DO have a couple of brain cells to rub together, don't you? Well, then... you've got your answer... Now sign the goddamn papers! NOW!"

Eh, I did say that I was the biggest bully in my family, didn't I? Well, I have never told lies.

So they signed, and little Brielle is better. She isn't even Russian, she's not from my blood family - she's Uncle David's second wife. (Not even Jewish, and not Russian - but she benefited from Uncle David's Matriarch. Uncle David is my mother's side of the family - not even my father's side... the side who is still old world enough to have a P/M[atriarch], but that's another thing I'm changing in my family. I get to do that. That's the beauty of being an autocrat. Uncle David wants to be (and has always wanted to be) part of my father's family, but they never would let him be a part of the family. I say that he is my blood, and he is, therefore, my responsibility, so he is now part of the family... and now no one can say differently. That permits entury of his wife's family - gentiles and non-Russians, to boot... but I'll deal with it. They will have to learn how Russian families work and fit in. Fit in or get out. It's simple. If you're family, then you are family, and if you are family, then you must behave accordingly.

So I'm home now. And I'm freezing cold. But it's only 52°F inside my house, so I'm not turning on my oil-burning furnace yet. Another pair of woolen socks and another pair of silk glove liners underneath my silk/wool fingerless gloves and a silk balaclava over my nose, and I'll be warm enough. Maybe a cup of steaming-hot caravan tea will help, too.

[Peasie]

Got it.