Court testimony: Mom threatened suicide over son’s disabilities
July 31st, 2008
From the Washington Post:
Michele Davidson watched her son, Grant, (with family, left) struggle with a severe birth defect for more than a year. She blamed her doctor for delaying his delivery — and she wanted him to feel her pain, according to court testimony yesterday.
… pointing a gun at her head, Davidson threatened to kill herself, [Chauncey] Stokes testified, but only after making him and his wife wait as long as she said she did for the delivery: 1 hour 30 minutes.
She said “she wanted [us] to feel the fear and the hopelessness,” Chauncey Stokes testified at the preliminary hearing …
Davidson’s son Grant has a form of cerebral palsy. Davidson, a George Mason University professor and midwife, alleged in court documents that Stokes violated standard medical practice by waiting too long to perform an emergency cesarean section.
Davidson’s mother, Geri Lewis, said her daughter has been distraught since the birth of Grant, who will never walk and might never talk.
Davidson was charged with breaking into Stokes’ home and abducting him and his wife. General District Judge Julia Taylor Cannon sent the case to a grand jury for possible indictment.
(Davidson family photo in Washington Post)
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August 4th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
He had Michelle sign a document stating he participated in an insurance policy that would give children who had disabilities related to birth trauma lifelong care, but he had not made those insurance payments for three years. She worked for him and didn’t know this. There is a pending lawsuit on this, but he can escape it by declaring bankruptcy.
She didn’t threaten him … she threatened herself in his presence. She waited an hour and a half for him to arrive at the hospital when standard of care says no more than a half hour should elapse from decision to incision.
August 2nd, 2008 at 8:55 am
Doctors think and even say they are gods, they also say that all women are crazy. I worked for an ob/gyn. Make him pay and what goes round comes round. There is an ob/gyn I want to make suffer for what he did to my disabled son but I won’t. Most MD’s are in denial and call it God’s will. Wrong. I would have shot him. (Personal opinon) I am older now. I can go to jail and live with the consequences. But, I also must take care of my disabled son. So none of what I say makes sense. God help your family!
July 31st, 2008 at 11:18 am
Yes, “shivers down the spines,” but not related to disability or prenatal testing. The shiver is because doctors and other health care providers have been killed by distraught patients or family members; I myself was stalked by a distraught wife of a patient. Michele Davidson, a midwife employed by the doc, was highly accomplished but now faces up to life in prison. I do not excuse her behavior; nevertheless I think that she needs mental health care, not lifetime prison, and that Grant should receive lifetime compensation from the Virginia Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Act. This entire complex situation is so sad for so many.
July 31st, 2008 at 9:06 am
This certainly sends shivers down the spines of all of our local OB/GYNs. My sense is that the situation can’t be helping efforts at creating positive partnerships with medical professionals.
Doctors will be even more anxious to promote prenatal testing (not to mention invasive labor and delivery practices) while discouraging the efforts of local disability advocates to build a relationship with them and share positive, up to date information.
Children are born with disabilities in the narrow context of doctor’s fears. If doctors shun our efforts to connect with them, even more parents will continue in isolation and lack of well rounded information.