random thoughts

Note for the squeamish… the following blog contains really sensitive and PG material.. If you dont like reading this i suggest you stop now but what Im trying to do is to raise more awareness and make the general public more aware of this important issue…  Once can hurt a lifetime is the title of a video we were made to watch during this rotation. It recounts stories of adults who were abused as children and grew up with low self-esteem and problems with relating to people later on…  I think kids should be kids, and as such, they have a right to grow up in a caring and nurturing environment..   I started my elective rotation in CPU this March.  CPU stands for Child Protection Unit under the Pedia department which is supposedly the most benign rotation being only 2 weeks instead of 4 weeks …

However, I wasnt prepared for the things that I saw in this elective..  On our first day, we reviewed the Shaken Baby Syndrome.  Never shake a baby who is crying unconsolably.. It may affect his mental capacity and bring neurological problems later on such as mental deficits.  That same morning we saw a 3 month old baby boy in the ER..  He was drowsy and presented with vomiting.  Ano kaya yun?  You would think meningitis (infection in the meninges of the brain)?  Puede. But the baby had a depression in the lateral part of skull bigger than a 10 peso coin..  Now you would suspect sumthing here because babies that age may be active but dont spontaneously get all these injuries.. Apparently, his father was drunk that night and he kicked his own helpless baby in the head. 

Nakakagulat pero ang dami talagang abused children in our country, either physically or sexually abused.  And usually the perpetrator is someone they know… In the case of that kid, his own father was to blame.

During my rotation, I watched several interviews and medical examinations of children who were sexually abused: either molested or raped.  May incest, may pedophilia.  Minsan nade-depress ako and you cant help but feel affected.. We would stay in an adjacent room where the kid is interviewed by the pediatrician.  We watched ala Pinoy BIg Brother, through a one way mirror while the interview is recorded for future use in court.

There are several stories that really got to me: a 5 year old girl poked in the vagina using a barbecue stick by an 8 year old boy.  12 year old boy molested by a 70 year old man who is regarded in their community as a religious and prominent person,  17 year old girl gang raped by 3 friends  during a gimik. an 8 year old boy with ADHD from a well to do family who was sexually abused by his teacher.

The common denominator here is that the perpetrator is someone they know.. someone they could trust supposedly.. Someone who has more power over them.. Someone with authority perhaps, sometimes giving them candy or trying to bribe them with cellphones… And warning them never to tell anyone.. Clearly, it is an abuse of power.. What is disturbing is that the justice system in our country would take a long time before they can prosecute these people because of the backlog of a lot of cases…

Do you think you can put the 70 year old lolo in jail if the boy had normal physical examination findings.. And 90% of the time these sexually abused kids would present with normal findings.. "Why?" you ask? Because the perpetrators are smart, they wont leave evidence… lalo na yung pedophiles. What happened to the 8 year old ADHD kid? The school he was attending in Makati apparently tried to cover up the incident.. Ako naniniwala ako dun sa bata.. Bakit? We watched the interview at least 4 times and I transcribed his interview for court, 12 pages containing very graphic descriptions of what the teacher did.. consistent, never flinching.. Paulit-ulit yung sinasabi niya.. ADHD ba naman.. I dont think the boy would make up something like that.  The thing is, the other children attending that school are also at risk!  We wouldn’t know if other children in that school are sexually abused as well since they are "special children" na nga and wouldnt understand that situation..

We even attended a court hearing in the Manila Regional Trial Court last Tuesday… it’s not like what you imagined in the movies.. The room is cramped, and filled with papers and filing cabinets.  It has 3 benches, with the 3rd bench being occupied by the suspects. There were about 15 cases heard in the morning, ranging from petty theft to rape.  Our case was that of a 17 year old girl who was being raped since she was 7 by her maternal uncle who is a known shabu user…  Apparently, the uncle had raped 2 of her cousins who also lived in the same house and it was not until this year that the grandmother (who raised the victims herself) decided that her son should be put in jail.  And it was not until 3 years later (when the victim is already 20 years old) that the case has been filed and if proven guilty, the uncle may be either given a life sentence or the death penalty.

Most kids would never report incidents like abuse.. for fear of being ostracized.. for fear that otehr kids will laugh at them, for fear that older people might not believe them and think they’re just in a make-believe world..  And several years later, these abused children may grow up to be dysfunctional adults… all the hurt and anger would resurface.. the memory they have repressed for a long time will come back…

So if you know of incidents of children who are being abused, you may refer them to PGH.. They may be brought and examined at the Child Protection Unit… Because these kids deserve to be kids..

Serious ko noh? I feel really strongly about this kasi.. maybe even be an advocate for children’s rights in the future…

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 11th, 2006 at 9:09 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.