The Traumatized Child

My colleagues and I are often faced with the task of taking care of children that have been traumatized. Sometimes a broken child reflects a lack of supervision on the part of an adult. Sometimes the adult is injured with the child. Many times the injury occurs because some adult believes that nothing bad can ever happen - this school of thought appears to be quite common.
Some of the most devastating injuries that I have seen in children have occurred when a child is riding or driving an ATV,  it flips and pins them. Many times these "accidents" are in the field far from medical care and this is a common cause of severe injury and death in the state of Kentucky. When parents see the result of the damage that has occurred, many are incredulous. "It looks so easy and safe on TV."
 Please believe me when I say that as parents, our role is to protect our children until they can protect themselves. Children cannot be expected to make rational decisions about all terrain vehicles, motorcycles, or guns. A four or five year old that is killed or seriously injured because of the lack of supervision of an adult in not an act of God, it is an act of men and women that are not thoughtful. Unfortunately the child is the injured party.

Rae Brown