Brrrrring brrrrrrring

I should never have answered the damn phone...that was my first mistake!

There should only be so much reality a girl needs to deal with on any given day!

As I went 'slack-jawed' in disgust, shock and incredulity, I knew it was only in part from the information I was hearing; it was more the iceberg it represented.

The call was forcing me to look closely at the system in which I work - which, as far as I'm concerned - is always a BIG mistake!

The average 'life expectancy' for a job in medicine as a Critical Care Pediatric Social worker (PICU and ER) is roughly 18 months.
I'm a veteran of 31 years.

My advice for survival: Own the piece you own; give it 110% of who you are at any given moment but, at some point, you have to trust that other people are giving it all they've got too. You have to trust that others, in other disciplines, will pick up the pieces you hand them and either pass it off -in more complete shape- to the next responsible person in the chain or bring it home.

No one person can do everything!

Keep your head down and, if you want to survive, don't EVER look up or you may see that other folks are dropping the ball that's been handed to them.
To recognize that will drive you crazy - and out the door!

As far as I'm concerned my 'formula' works.

His words made me look up~~~~


In a world in which 4,000 people can be convinced to sign a petition to make 'Pole dancing' an Olympic sport, the States Atty was telling me he didn't believe he could get a jury of 12 rural voters to convict a young, married, mother of two, middle class, church-going babysitter, for the physical abuse and permanent brain damage of a 7 month old infant left in her care.

While it might surprise some, I appreciate that the vast majority of felonies do not lead to arrests and the vast majority of arrests do not lead to prosecutions - but, COME ON, you have to start somewhere!

Maybe you could try showing them a tape of the damn confession!
You know, the one in which she admits being so pissed off by his crying, she picked him up from the high chair and slammed him, head-first, into the side of the playpen with such force that it splintered and collapsed, causing him to then hit his head on the elliptical machine positioned in the corner!

Yeah, that one!

Maybe you could show them a tape of the baby on life support, seizing his brains out in the PICU.... you know, the same image his parents and I had to witness earlier today!

Maybe people wouldn't be so shocked to hear about abuse like this if they were aware of how frequently it happens.

Maybe if there were more prosecutions, your constituents wouldn't think there were just a few random salacious cases reserved for Nancy Grace...

maybe if you did your job more often or, dare I say it, better and charged some people, they'd start to get the drift!!

"Face it, Donna, people don't want to live in a world where shit like this is possible".

I understand that - I do...

but the world I want to live in even less is the one in which no one gets held accountable.

Second mistake?
I should have kept my head down....