Chapter 14 - She Contacted the Hospital
Bernice had emailed patient relations two days before the third incident.
Subject:
Concern Regarding Reinforcement of Illness Behavior — Elodie Maddox.
She described herself as:
“longstanding caregiver.”
True.
She wrote:
Father is understandably traumatized after death of child’s mother and may be unable to distinguish medical necessity from emotional dependency.
That infuriated me.
Then:
Child is capable of normal mobility when father is absent.
She attached two video clips.
The short ones.
Not clip seven where Elodie became breathless.
Why?
Bernice later said file size.
Maybe.
The selective result mattered regardless.
She requested:
Psychiatric consultation before surgical decisions.
No surgery had even been finalized yet.
Patient relations forwarded concern to treating team.
The team already knew Elodie had grief history.
Psychology consult occurred.
Not because Bernice controlled them.
Because pediatric teams often evaluate psychosocial factors in complex presentations.
The psychologist concluded:
Anxiety symptoms present.
No evidence symptoms were fabricated.
Medical workup remained necessary.
Bernice later cited the existence of psych consult as:
proof doctors agreed with me.
Again.
Process became evidence in her mind.
That was how a smart person built a closed loop.
Ask professionals to evaluate a theory.
Professionals evaluate.
May you like
The fact they evaluated becomes validation even when conclusion disagrees.
────────────────────
