I Don't Know What to Say

A young mother brought in her 4 month old at 1am this morning with fever. The child had been seen by his pediatrician just 12 hours previous and had been placed on an appropriate treatment regimen for otitis media. The mother had gone to the pharmacy and picked up the antibiotic prescription (covered by the state) but had failed to buy either tylenol or motrin.

"That's money for bills," she said, "I can't afford tylenol".

Well how in God's name can you afford this bill?!??

I thought about calling Child Protective Services but held off at the last minute. I thought about asking the following: Do you have a car? A cell phone? Call waiting on your home phone service? Cable television? But I didn't. I sat and talked with the mom and got the feeling at the end of the interview that she truly wasn't capable of understanding the poor choices she was making about her child or about her money. I did drop a note to her pediatrician to ensure close follow up, but what the hell? Poor kid.