Daughters Struggle to Keep Mom Conscious

[Liberal_in_LA]

Daughters Struggle to Keep Mom Conscious
Throwing water in her face brings police
Posted: 6:48 PM May 3, 2009

Reporter: Gary Smollen

Omaha Police, responding to a disturbance call in the area of 96th and V Plaza, find a disturbing situation. Two young girls, ages seven and eight, struggling to keep their mother awake.

When officers arrived at the family's apartment, on Monday, April 20th, they say the 30-year old mother was drifting in and out of consciousness. They called for paramedics.

In the minutes that followed officers found a bottle of prescription painkillers, just filled that day, but as many as 40 pills were missing from the bottle.

According to the report, the girls told officers when their mother is in this condition they throw water in her face to make her "come to". Sometimes, the girls allegedly told officers, it is difficult to wake their mother up in time to get to school.

The mother was taken to the hospital, and cited for two counts of misdemeanor child neglect. The daughters were placed with Health and Human Services.

http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/44269272.html

[PDJane]

1. Can't this be dealt with

without criminalizing the mother and removing the only thing that is keeping her alive? Can't we, for instance, find out why she wants to kill herself? Instead of treating the whole family as a case of moral failure, shouldn't we examine the failures of a system that won't treat what is, more than likely, a case of mental problems and a too-easy prescription pad?

[Taverner]

4. Exactly - decriminalize and treat the problem, don't make it criminal

Make a requirement of her keeping the kids rehab. Cover the cost of rehab.

[JI7]

5. "only thing that is keeping her alive" ?

where do you get that idea if she really is trying to commit suicide and if what the girl's say is true than it's not the first time she attempted this.

[BuyingThyme]

9. I think that's in reference to the kids.

[BlooInBloo]

2. Is it just me, or does that sound like a suicide attempt?

[PDJane]

3. No, it's not just you.

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. It does but then the article states that daughters have been through this before

[enlightenment]

7. Suicides fail more often than they succeed, particularly when

the person making the attempt is really seeking help, not death.

Nothing can really be known from that article, beyond the fact that two more children have just been introduced to the social services revolving door.

Sad.

[WePurrsevere]

8. It could be a suicide attempt or it could be a misunderstanding of how

to take the pills. It's amazing how many don't understand the directions on the bottle no less how medications work.

When DH and I first started as caregivers to my now late in-laws my FIL was taking pain meds by the handful (if 2 didn't work a half hour later he'd take 4, etc)... sometimes even with a chaser of liqueur. When DH and I sat down and talked to my in-laws about it they said that they thought that "2 pills every 8 hours or as needed" meant he could take them more and more often "as needed". :o Needless to say that stopped and DH and I had words with their doctor and pharmacist.

If this woman is in severe pain she may not be completely rational. IME when pain hits a certain point all you can think of is making the pain STOP NOW. It's also possible that the meds make her very loopy even under correct usage. For instance there are some pain meds that don't even touch my DH but will knock me on my butt for the day.

No matter what the reason... hopefully she'll get some decent help for pain management and dealing with the psychological struggles of living in pain so she can be a better Mom for those two little girls.