26.2.13

A blast from my past

I was working on Saturday at a kindergarten preparation fair, performing hearing and vision screenings on some adorable four year olds, when I noticed some familiar faces in line. There were two older girls along with their younger sister, and a parent I recognized: it was the weed-eating family from long ago. 

Leave it to a child to say excitedly without realizing the awkwardness that might follow, "Hey, you're the nurse that called the ambulance when I wasn't feeling well!" I hadn't seen the mother since the incident, but had heard rumors of the struggles she had in keeping her kids with her after that incident. They did end up going into foster care for quite some time afterward, a wonderful foster family that reportedly sent the girls to school on time and dressed appropriately, but for whatever reason, they just recently were reunited with mom. Unfortunately. 

I tried to check the four year old's hearing, only to be met with a look of zero, I repeat, zero recognition of anything happening. Four year olds tend to either get really excited and happy when the headphones are put on their heads, or start flailing and crying; for neither to happen - well, there's something wrong with that baby. I called my trusty health clerk, who tends to know everything about everybody, about the lost gaze in the youngest sister's eyes. Apparently the baby had been badly burned in a fire soon after the weed eating incident her sister had (a fire that was worse than it needed to be after mom poured water on a grease fire). This, combined with the fact that she's with that mother, sadly accounts for the fact that the baby appeared to have the cognitive function of a vegetable. Makes. Me. Sick. 

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