Confidentiality 3
Kell Brackett's attention was focused completely on his conversation now. "Jenny, are you sure?"
"Yes Dr. Brackett, I saw him do it, I just got back to school from making our commercial and they sent us out to play. I saw Allen hanging onto the support bar to the swing set and wanted to ask him if his arm was feeling better so I was walking toward him when Mr. Bunker reached over and shoved him into the swings."
"So you knew about Allen's broken arm?" Brackett questioned, "When did you know about his arm."
"He hurt it when he was pushed off the monkey bars by Mark Jackson last week. I put a splint on it and told him to go to the school nurse to get an ice pack on it until his mom could take him to the doctor. I thought it was broken but Mr. Bunker said it was just a sprain and wouldn't let him go to the nurse, Mr. Bunker just made him go back to class, he wouldn't even let him call his mom to come get him."
"I tried to watch him and help him make it feel better when he was at school; I really think I Bunker was wrong about it just being sprained. It was hurting too much and for too long. Did you say it was broken?"
"Yes Jenny it was," Dr. Bracket answered but then wished he hadn't.
"What can I do to make grown up people listen to me?" Jenny voice had a sob mixed in.
That was a tough question to answer but Dr. Brackett knew he needed to come up with something. "You can always call here at the hospital Jenny. We just might be able to work at it from our end."
For the next few minutes Kell listened to the concerned little girl who was able to tell him about more injuries the boy had gotten at school. The names, Mark Jackson and I Bunker were repeated often. Then Kell gave Jenny some advice about how to keep herself safe as well as her two new friends. "Do everything you can to stay in a group and look out for each other. Don't let this teacher or this Mark Jackson get any of you alone. I'm going to talk with some people here and see what we can do from our end Okay Jenny."
"Okay Dr. Brackett, My Mommy just came in and she wants to talk to you."
"Dr. Brackett I'm sorry she's used up so much of your time, she just told me she wanted to talk to Dixie and make sure her friend was all right."
"There is nothing to apologize for JoAnne. That young daughter of yours was able to give me some very important information that will help one of our patients a lot. Hopefully she'll tell you about it and what I said but I need to get to a meeting now. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"No thank you Dr. Brackett, I'll let you get to your meeting," JoAnne then hung up with a sigh.
She turned to her daughter and noticed the same worried look she had when she came into the bedroom to make her secret call but now there was more. Her young daughter looked like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders.
"Okay young lady, what's going on here?" JoAnne stood over her daughter with her hands on her hips.
"I can't tell you Mommy, it would break the confidentiality," Jenny said, deliberately enunciating the last word, and then slumped down on the floor at the side of her parent's bed and wrapped her arms around her legs holding them tight to her chest. JoAnne began to get really worried. Not knowing what else to do she slid to the floor next to her daughter and pulled her into her arms and held her tight.
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At the hospital Kell left the phone at the nurse's station and headed straight for his office. When he was close enough to see the door he could see that Dr. Early and a representative from child protective services were just leaving his office.
"Wait please," Kell called out and hurried a bit faster. "I just got some information about the Allen Baldwin case that we need to discuss."
The three of them then entered into the office again, Dr. Early and the social worker sat down on the sofa and Kell rested his legs by leaning on his desk.
"I just got a phone call from a witness to the accident this morning and the person who originally splinted his wrist last week." Kell began he then repeated everything Jenny had told him relying on notes he had taken for dates or as was usually the case other activities that had taken place. The social worker still had a lot of follow up to do to complete the information.
The social worker took copious notes and even requested Dr. Brackett's original notes to add to her file she then asked the question, "Who is this witness and where can I find her?"
Kell knew what was going to happen next but he couldn't with hold the information. "Her name is Jennifer DeSoto," Kell paused and let out a sigh, "She's seven years old but she understands an amazing amount of first aid and a lot of the kids at her school trust her."
"We're talking about the paramedic's kid who's been in the news from time to time over the last year or so right?"
Both Kell and Joe nod their head.
"Talk about one abused child trying to save another."
"What do you mean by that?" Kell jumped to his feet in a defensive move.
"I assure you ma'am that little girl is not abused," Joe fallowed through with a much calmer tone to his voice.
"Oh really, what do you call it when a father forces his young daughter to learn medical terminology far beyond her years and then puts her in danger to use it," The social worker defended her claim.
Kell was ready to yell at the person before him when Joe cut him off with a calmer tone. "I can testify that Roy did not force his daughter to learn anything. Most of what she learned she learned by watching her father teach her brother's boy scout troop, Unlike most kids her age she takes it seriously. The dangerous situation she got into she got herself into long before her father was on scene. I will add, that if she hadn't climbed under that shed to pinch off that lacerated femoral artery that boy would have been long dead before the paramedics got there let along before they could get to him."
"I will also add that because of the excellent care that boy got before professional help could get to him he now still has his leg and is a health happy child able to run and play with his friends and if you ask him which leg he hurt he has to stop and think about it before he can tell you." Kell added with a little bit of venom in his voice.
"Look," Joe took over the conversation again. "You're undoubtedly going to be talking with this young lady, all we ask is that you keep an open mind and I'm sure you'll see for yourself just how genuine she is, and how much her parents love her and worry about her."
"Come on now, I've seen how they doll that little girl up with fancy clothes and fancy hair do's and make up every time she get a TV interview. Don't tell me her parents aren't trying to show her off."
"That is deliberate," Kell sat down again and spoke more calmly, "It was something her parents were advised to do by some one who works with the department's public relations office. See last year after an incident at the school a known pedophile showed up at the school asking for her and telling kids he needed first aid. They do the fancy stuff for when she's on camera so that she will be harder to recognize in her everyday life."
The social worker remained silent for a while as she thought about what to say next, she knew she had made some accusations that she didn't have the evidence to back up but she still thought the little girl they were talking about was being exploited. Regardless of her feelings she was under obligation to check out the story she had heard so she chose to minimize her confrontation at the time.
"I still don't agree with you, but regardless of my feelings there are going to be big issues with these statements. First of all Mr. Bunker is a very popular teacher at that school, second of all he has already stated that he reached out to pull the young boy out of the path of the swing and I don't think that there is a judge anywhere who is going to take the word of a 7 year old over the word of a trusted teacher. As far as I'm concerned this little girl is just trying to get more attention by making these claims."
The conversation was completed and the social worker stepped out of the office leaving Kell and Joe sharing disappointed and troubled glances with each other as they shook their heads.
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At the station Roy and Cap were still sequestered in the office listing options for their next move when it was determined to call head quarters and inquire with the Crisis intervention department for advice on how to proceed.
The first person they talked to wasn't sure what advice to give so he took the information at hand and said he would ask his supervisor and call them back shortly.
Roy and Hank were sitting in the office waiting for the phone to ring and when it did it was picked up on the first ring. Roy held his breath as Hank identified himself and the station then noticed the phone being handed to him instead of being put on speaker phone.
JoAnne was on the line frightened, upset and demanding to know why Roy's captain would tell their daughter not to talk to them about anything.
"That's not exactly what happened Jo," Roy tried to soften her up and calm her down so that she would listen and understand the explanation he was about to give. "Jenny called here earlier while I was out on a run so she asked to talk to Cap to get an explanation of what confidentiality meant and how it worked. When he was done explaining she told him how she understood it and then he tired to get her to understand that she could talk to you and I about anything but he was afraid that she didn't understand that."
As Roy was listening to JoAnne catch her breath and sort through what she had been told Captain Stanley made an offer, "I'm the one who caused that problem perhaps if I talked with her again I could get her straitened out this time."
Before he could hand the phone over to his captain Roy had to answer a question himself first, "Jo I don't know why Jenny is worried about confidentiality right now, maybe if Cap can explain to her that it's alright to talk to us we can find out."
Roy was just handing over the phone to his captain when the tones went off and rang long as seven stations were called out for a gas explosion at a factory. Instead of talking to Jenny Cap was only able to apologize to JoAnne about having to go before he hung up.
There were nearly a hundred employees injured and/or trapped by the explosion and no real understanding about what had caused it or if there was a chance of another one. Roy and Johnny spent a lot of time extricating victims from the rubble and sending them out to the units set up out side to treat them. Rampart and another Hospital each sent a Dr. to help with on sight treatment and triage and everyone long lost count of how many ambulances came and went. Making a head count would be assigned to some one else. The only real good news was that few of the victims received any real burns just a lot of broken bones and a few internal injuries.
It was dark when the last ambulance pulled out and they were given the order to bring the hose in. they had just about got it all loaded back in the trucks when one of the police officers looking over the shoulder of the inspector stepped on a weaken section of flooring and went through to the basement and had to be rescued and taken in to the hospital. When the squad returned its occupants were in desperate need of a shower, nourishment and several hours of unconsciousness. The rest of the station had just finished their showers and were sitting down to a quick meal of canned soup and sandwiches as the squad backed into place. As Johnny drug himself out of the squad Cap sent him to the showers and then leaned into the open driver side window to talk to Roy.
"Headquarters called, they said the best thing to do is to tell Jenny to be sure to take all of her injuries to a teacher or the school nurse and let their system follow through."
Roy lifted his watch into view to check the time, "Jenny should have been in bed hours ago, I still better go give Jo a call."
With that Cap pulled away from the door to allow Roy to get out and went back to his paperwork.
Roy found that JoAnne was waiting for his call and she picked up on the first ring to keep from waking the children. First Roy apologized for taking so long to get back to her the JoAnne explained that she understood because she had seen them on the news.
Jo spent the rest of the conversation before Roy was sent to the showers apologizing for what she had said in her first conversation and telling her husband that Jenny would only admit that she had told Dr. Brackett every thing and he said he would take care of things from his end and told her what to do in the mean time.
Roy explained Cap's suspicions and the advice given by Headquarters and they both agreed that Jenny and her parents needed to sit down together once she got home from school tomorrow.
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The next morning Jenny proved unusually difficult to get out of bed in the morning but her mother some how managed to get her dressed and to the bus on time with a piece of toast in her hands. There wasn't time to pass on the information her father had for her JoAnne just hoped what ever Dr. Brackett told her to do was the same thing.