Think about when a mom welcomes home a new baby. They're perfect, right? Sure, they poop, and scream, and they all come out looking vaguely like aliens (yes, all of them -- don't kid yourself, honey), but to their mothers, they are just right. Now imagine the horror that washes over a mother when she hears the words "I'm sorry, but we can't reattach the tip of your little girl's finger."
That's what happened to Veronica Olguin. She took her (then) 3-month-old daughter Selena into the hospital with a high fever. When it was time to take her home, Olguin said she watched as a nurse allegedly snipped the little girl's pinky finger in half with a scissor as she cut through tape attaching an IV to the baby. OUCH!
Who's surprised to hear she's suing the hospital? Yeah, me neither. Normally, I'm not big on lawsuits, but I can't help it. I get it! I identify with this mom big time. These little babies come out one way, and it's our job to do whatever we can to keep them that way.
Maybe it's the memory of sitting with my newborn daughter in my arms, staring at her perfect little eyelashes and her perfectly plump little cheeks that makes me feel so strongly for Veronica and little Selena. I would be embarrassed to admit how much I gushed about how beautiful she was at that point (and still is, ahem!), but this is one of those ties that binds parents. We are our kids' first champions.
When they come out, we see a clean slate that we're terrified will be dirtied somehow ... by us or by someone else. We don't know how it will happen, just worry that somehow there is just too much perfection in our arms and it can't possibly last forever, like something too good to be true. We certainly don't think it will be by a trusted medical professional at a hospital where we take our sick child to make them BETTER! It is perhaps the ultimate breakdown of trust.
As Olguin told Tampa's Fox station:
She was born so perfect. And they just, they just cut off her finger.
Sniff. Sniff. Just look at this little beauty and listen to her mom's horror story:
Lawsuit: nurse severed infant's finger: MyFoxTAMPABAY.com
Has someone you trusted with your child hurt them? How did it happen?
Image via My Fox Tampa