Her story appears in an unlikely site – a case report of The Massachusetts General Hospital, a regular feature for decades in The New England Journal of Medicine. Typically, a medical case is described. A clinical expert then discusses the findings and outlines possible causes. She concludes with a diagnosis. The audience of students and physicians offer their consensus for a diagnosis. A pathologist then discusses the findings at autopsy or surgery. Symptoms and physical findings are reconciled with these objective discoveries. A vibrant learning experience results.
The June 25 case report was unique and heartrending.
A 7-year-old girl traveled hundreds of miles with her mother from a dangerous, abusive and impoverished environment in Central America to seek asylum in the U.S. The girl had already witnessed violence and threats directed at her mother. For weeks, the pair had walked, hitched rides on various conveyances, and, on one occasion, hidden from authorities for days.
Upon arrival at the border, the pair were placed in a stark, concrete room with multiple pairs of mother-child asylum seekers. They shared a single bathroom. Four people shared each mattress. Two days later, the mother and daughter were abruptly separated. The mother moved to a facility hundreds of miles away. She was told that she would never see her daughter again. They would be separated for two months. After two weeks, the mother was permitted to phone her daughter. Calls followed at weekly intervals. During the separation, the little girl repeatedly endured threats and bullying from other children and some staff members.
Reunited in a refugee facility in New England, the mother found her daughter suffering from anxiety, insomnia, outbursts of aggression, and disrupted eating. The girl performed poorly in the school to which she was assigned. She repeatedly engaged in fighting. Counseling in the school was limited.
The girl was referred to a specialized clinic in New England, designed for evaluation and treatment of refugees by a team of pediatricians, psychiatrists and social workers. At each step, the little girl was treated with gentleness. Her team of therapists conclude that she suffered from severe, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which will require months to years of coordinated therapy to address. The nuances of evaluation of a traumatized child is detailed.
The mother seeks formal asylum in the U.S. for her daughter and herself. Her hearing is postponed until 2022.
To discourage asylum-seekers across our Southern border the administration launched, in 2017, a policy of separating children from their parents soon after their arrival on U.S. soil. The exact number of separations and subsequent reunions is unknown. Public uproar led to alleged shut-down of the policy of separation the following year. Accurate data regarding current treatment of asylum-seeking families is obscured. Reports of families, who are currently in some form of custody, is impossible to obtain.
Sometimes, fiction can intensify our comprehension of truths. Writer Don Winslow accomplishes this in his novella, “The Last Ride,” the concluding narrative in his collection, “Broken,” published earlier this year. In the powerful narrative, damaged adults interact at a detention facility on the Texas-Mexico border. A conflicted male guard undertakes the reunion of a little girl with her mother from which she has been separated for months. Their shared trek into Mexico is one of the great odysseys of American literature.
Every adult has a moral imperative to protect children. To nourish, clothe, hold close, dispel fears, and guide to a future where that child can realize her potential.
Why cannot governmental policy toward asylum-seekers incorporate this fundamental principle?
Contact Clif Cleaveland at ccleaveland@timesfreepress.com.