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http://news.yahoo.com/woman-left-quadri ... 40630.html

A mother abandoned her quadriplegic son in a wooded area of a Philadelphia park for nearly a week so she could visit her boyfriend in Maryland, police said.

I just finished reading that also. Just enraging.

I wish they still had the electric chair for people like this.

I am in no way condoning what this woman did but has anyone considered that she may not be in her right mind? Obviously someone has cared for this young man for many years. Does it make sense that someone who has spent years taking care of someone would do this if they had not experienced some type of mental breakdown themselves?
If you have never worked with or taken care of someone with severe handicaps you simply have no clue the toll it can take on someone mentally. At the time this occurred the woman may have been just as handicapped mentally as the young man was physically.

jmra wrote:I am in no way condoning what this woman did but has anyone considered that she may not be in her right mind? Obviously someone has cared for this young man for many years. Does it make sense that someone who has spent years taking care of someone would do this if they had not experienced some type of mental breakdown themselves?
If you have never worked with or taken care of someone with severe handicaps you simply have no clue the toll it can take on someone mentally. At the time this occurred the woman may have been just as handicapped mentally as the young man was physically.

This is sad but true. There is no excuse for what she did, but caring for someone like this for a long period of time can be mentally debilitating. I'm not saying she doesn't need to be punished, I'm just saying we don't know the back story. Horrible situation.

I have no doubt she is mentally off -- last I read the article when the police found her, they took her straight to the hospital for unspecified medical reasons, and it's a good bet that is primarily for psychological reasons (and it's possible she hurt herself as well).

But taking her son out into the woods where he was unlikely to be found, taking him out of his wheel chair and putting in on the ground (apparently without any food or water), and leaving for another state with her boyfriend seems a pretty deliberate, selfish, and cruel action. She didn't just break, go temporarily psychotic for a moment, and do something awful. She's been working on this for awhile, I think.