MedicCook
10-14-2006, 12:21 PM
Mom tried for neglect in girl's botched piercing
BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- The attorney for a woman accused of failing to get medical help after her teenage daughter nearly died from a botched a belly piercing said his client was a struggling single mother who did her best to care for the girl.
Deborah Robinson, 39, is charged with wantonly and recklessly permitting substantial bodily injury to a child under 14. Authorities said she watched as her daughter became weak, emaciated and incontinent over a month-long period in 2005 after a belly piercing that led to a severe infection.
Robinson tried to care for the 13-year-old girl at home and thought her daughter had been improving because the swelling around her belly button had receded, defense attorney Janet Macnab said during opening statements in the case.
"This story is a story of poverty, of ignorance, of a single mother with two children trying to do the best that she could do with very little resources," Macnab said.
But Suffolk Assistant District Attorney David Deakin told jurors that when emergency medical workers arrived at Robinson's apartment on August 3, 2005, they saw her daughter laying on the couch wearing only a shirt and a diaper with a foul-smelling ooze coming out of a hole just below her belly button.
"It was not until her daughter was in a state where she was totally unresponsive, ... it was only then that the defendant called for medical help," Deakin said.
Authorities said that Robinson told emergency medical technicians that she had cared for her daughter at home because she was suspicious of doctors.
The girl, now 14, dropped from 115 pounds to 75 pounds after a massive infection spread through her abdomen. The girl had perforated her intestine after trying to pierce her own navel.
The girl, who was placed in state custody, fully recovered after multiple surgeries. For a week, doctors did not know if she would survive, Deakin said.
Robinson also has a teenage son.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/10/13/fatal.piercing.ap/index.html
BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- The attorney for a woman accused of failing to get medical help after her teenage daughter nearly died from a botched a belly piercing said his client was a struggling single mother who did her best to care for the girl.
Deborah Robinson, 39, is charged with wantonly and recklessly permitting substantial bodily injury to a child under 14. Authorities said she watched as her daughter became weak, emaciated and incontinent over a month-long period in 2005 after a belly piercing that led to a severe infection.
Robinson tried to care for the 13-year-old girl at home and thought her daughter had been improving because the swelling around her belly button had receded, defense attorney Janet Macnab said during opening statements in the case.
"This story is a story of poverty, of ignorance, of a single mother with two children trying to do the best that she could do with very little resources," Macnab said.
But Suffolk Assistant District Attorney David Deakin told jurors that when emergency medical workers arrived at Robinson's apartment on August 3, 2005, they saw her daughter laying on the couch wearing only a shirt and a diaper with a foul-smelling ooze coming out of a hole just below her belly button.
"It was not until her daughter was in a state where she was totally unresponsive, ... it was only then that the defendant called for medical help," Deakin said.
Authorities said that Robinson told emergency medical technicians that she had cared for her daughter at home because she was suspicious of doctors.
The girl, now 14, dropped from 115 pounds to 75 pounds after a massive infection spread through her abdomen. The girl had perforated her intestine after trying to pierce her own navel.
The girl, who was placed in state custody, fully recovered after multiple surgeries. For a week, doctors did not know if she would survive, Deakin said.
Robinson also has a teenage son.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/10/13/fatal.piercing.ap/index.html