More Reason to Rage
May 24, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
A 4-year-old boy who was severely beaten by his mother is now in a coma and clinging to life. As reported in today’s Merced Sun-Star, Martha Franco has been charged with attempted homicide, corporeal injury to a child, battery and child endangerment; her husband, Jose Franco, has been charged with child endangerment. The boy, who is not named, has a number of medical conditions, including heart defects, respiratory problems, and autism. Martha Franco called 911 around 4am on May 21st, Monday, because the boy was unresponsive; he was flown by helicopter to Children’s Hospital Central California, where it was determine that physical abuse—he had been beaten, burned, and bitten—had caused his injuries. Three sisters, ages 8, 6, and 2 also lived in the house and were not injured, and have been placed with Merced County Child Protective Services.
One rages. One weeps.
And one’s heart aches.
I just feel physically sick.
I’m giving my boy an extra-big hug when he gets off the bus this afternoon.
This story about Brandon Williams who was 5 when he died from blunt force trauma to his head is not going to make anyone feel better. Brandon’s mother and a roommate have been charged.
C166, can you pass the vomit bag here when you’re done. I have that same sensation here.
Can I lay blame at the feet of Autism Speaks and Generation Rescue for the attitudes that lead to this sort of event?
I really do hope so.
I hope this boy survives and later finds adoptive parents who can love him and try to make him forget about this monstrosity.
I didn’t have the stomach to read the full article this morning; I was too upset. However, after reading it, there are some slaient points in the article which speak to me. The first is the fact that the child spent so much time in the hospital. If he was as ill/medically involved as it sounds, it makes it even harder for significant bonding to occur between mother and child. Even more soe if there are the demands of other children at home and perhaps work as well. Knowing the area this happened, I can only surmise that the social services available to these parents was extremely limited–either due to a possible language barrier or to availability of case workers. I’m going to make a leap here and assume they were not educated parents and didn’t know what their rights were or how to ask for the help they needed.
Let me be crystal clear—I am not excusing what they’ve done. FAR FROM IT! I do not believe the route of violence or cruelty is the answer to anything EVER. But, unlike Allison Tepper-Singer (ok, she only *talked* about doing something horrendous!) or Karen McCarron, these parents didn’t have the benefit of education, strong support , and the financial resources to be able to get help before it was too late.
I too would like to put the blame at the feet of the people who claim that it is normal and okay to want to end your life or your childs because they have autism. They need to relize that is depression not autism. I hope that as a society we can take a step back and relize that although the actions of these parents in inexcusable it may have been prevented if we were better at educating and supporting families who deal with children with disabilities. I have seen a lot of times that the government agencies wait until it is at the point that the parents are too overwhelmed. This makes me so sad for so many reasons.
Niksmom & Julie, your perspective adds a lot—-it’s terrible that this happened and one has to wonder about how to keep this from happening again: About who needs to be educated and informed about autism and what can be done, and what help there is.