Keyboard's just a'clicking...

A little compassion please...

As part of my current position, I am required to administer blood pressure screenings to children whose physicians did not provide that information on their health certificate. I never understood how to read the blood pressure needle (very long story), so I always have a co-worker go with me to do it. Upon arrival at one school, we found that the children were eating lunch, so we had to wait. While they were eating, I noticed one little boy (three-years old) in particular eating his lunch very fast and stuffing his mouth in the process. He wasn't playing with his food at all; I guess he was just that hungry. Before I could get a good, "Slow down, sweetie" out of my mouth, he begins to seriously vomit. The parts that he can't catch in his tiny hands runs all the way down his clothes. As I turn to go grab some paper towels, I see the teacher's aide walking towards the teacher with paper towels. She hands the paper towels to the teacher. The teacher, looking all of disgusted that she has to get up from her seat, takes her time walking over to the child. She motions for the little boy to come over by the trashcan, and he does. While standing there, she tears off a paper towel one by one and hands them to the child (three-years old). The child (three-years old) takes the paper towels and, in an effort to clean himself, spreads the mess all over his clothes. Anyone who knows me knows that this scene is beginning to disturb me just a bit, BUT the new bright, sunshiny me looks on the bright side and thinks that maybe the teacher is allowing the child to clean himself up as much as possible to work on those fine motor skills and THEN she is going to really clean him up. Sadly, I was wrong. After the child continues to make a mess of himself, she takes out a bottle of hand sanitizer and squeezes a few drops into the child's hands....the hands that are still covered in vomit. The child (three-years old) begins to rub the sanitizer all around his hands. The teacher then tells the child to sit and finish his lunch. OK...now that bright, sunshiny theory of mine when right out the window and the normal me returned, so I had to speak:

Me: Ms. (teacher's name), if you don't mind, I can take him to the bathroom and clean him up.
Teacher: (looking baffled) Oh, that's ok, I just gave him hand sanitizer.
Me: (blank stare wondering who the hell hired this woman) Ummmm...Ms. (teacher's name), he needs soap and water. Hot water, preferably.
Teacher: (noticing she's talking to someone who may actually care about the child) Oh, yes, I'm going to clean him up. He has an extra pair of clothes in his cubby. I just figured I'd let him finish eating first.
Me: (looks at the child, sees his state, thinks that if I walked in a school cafeteria and saw my child eating in his condition, security and on and off duty cops would have to escort me out of the buidling while Fox 5 covered the report). Ummm...he can't eat like that. His hands and face are filthy and his clothes are all messed up. Not to mention all the germs and bacterial issues that the hand sanitizer didn't address (I was praying she caught the sarcasm). I really don't mind cleaning him up.
Teacher: (looks at me and my co-worker who is just as disgusted as I am and decides to take the child to the classroom and clean him up herself.)

Ten minutes later, the child returns looking fresh and sparkly and finishes his lunch, this time eating much slower than before. I was satisfied, but disturbed that the only reason she took the child and cleaned him up is because someone had to bring it to her attention that it needed to be done. Either that, or she thought we were going to go back to work and report her...who knows?

All I know is that people who work with others need to truly understand what it means to be empathetic. Where is the compassion, folks?

posted by Madeehah @ 9:21 AM