[jolean12]

I just didn't know anyone I else I could vent to than y'all that would truely understand. Yesterday I was down at the DCFS office when they brought in 5 children that were entering care. I have seen hundreds of children come into care and have never seen anything like this before. Even some of the CW, one being there 10 yrs, has never seen this before. All of the children were filthy and stunk (seen that)...the oldest boy @ 9 had a cut between his thumb and pointer that was swollen about 10 times the size it should be and he could not move his thumb or pointer finger, the next boy age 7 had a broken arm that had some kind of spint on it that had never been changed and was beyond filthy, I will come back the next child, a 3 y/o girl that had some kind of infected sore under her eye, and a 7 month old boy whose nose was bleeding, slowly but continuously and you could just hear him wheezing and grasping for air. All of there hair was just crawling with lice. They all had already found placements when I saw them at the office but they were all headed for the hospital. I was called by a friend of mine, foster parent and hairdresser, could I please come and help her get the middle girl, age 4, cleaned up. Now let me tell you about her. Her hair was so matted with dirt, lice, scabs, that we had to shave her bald (doctors orders)...it was like shaving tree bark off a tree. She has body lice and has about itched her whole body raw. When we finally, after about 5 baths and shaving for 2 hours got her head completely shaved....her scalp was raw, infected, and swollen. Upon bathing and getting the body dirt off, she was covered in bruises and had a gash on her foot that had never been doctored and was obviously infected, was filled with dirt but was closed. She is very obviousy severly delayed and had very bad balance..although with all the infections maybe her equallibriam was off. She screamed in pain and fear almost the entire 3 hours and my heart was crying for her. When we were all done she just wanted me to hold her and said she wanted to come with me.....while I was the one trying to hold her down, the whole time we were telling her what a good girl she was and asking her about the things she liked, while my friend shaved her head. I could not take her but I am still crying just thinking about her. I know this happens but I just cannot understand how anyone could do this to a child, then DFCS just gives them a caseplan to get their children back and they are never punished. The supervisor that was there took lots of pictures and saved all the hair we had to cut off to try and get this woman arrested. I hope they do!
Sorry to ramble I just had to vent my anger and hurt this morning.