Mother’s delay in having burned son treated ‘reprehensible’

A judge described as “reprehensible” a six-day delay by a mother in seeking medical attention for first-and second-degree burns suffered by her two-year-old son.

At Ennis Circuit Court yesterday, Judge Carroll Moran imposed a two-year suspended term on the 26-year-old for neglect of her son in Sep and Oct 2009.

Judge Moran said the burns “were non-accidental; that is, they were done deliberately... I cannot speculate about what might have happened, unless there is evidence before me. In this case we just don’t know. For this reason, the accused has not been charged with anything other than neglect.”

The boy — now aged 5 and in the care of the HSE — suffered burns to the backs of both thighs on Sep 27. This mother did not seek medical attention for him until Oct 3.

The woman — now seven months pregnant with her second child — told gardaí the boy suffered the burns from being wedged between his bed and a radiator while she was out of the home.

However, plastic surgeon Peter Meagher said: “It is my firm opinion that these extensive, mixed-thickness burns were from a scald from boiling water.

“The explanation put forward by the mother has a very questionable validity.

“These burns would have been intensively painful due to their depth, and should have been followed up by seeking emergency medical attention and the delay of a week before seeking medical attention is incomprehensible.”

Counsel for the woman, Mark Nicholas BL, said she told the Probation Service that at the time “she didn’t think the burns were that bad”.

Mr Nicholas said: “There is a question mark over how these injuries were sustained, but the mother was slow in seeking attention.”

Gda Deirdre Browne said the accused and her current partner — who is not the father of the boy — got cream from a neighbour and bandages from the chemist to treat the child’s burns.

Mr Nicholas said the woman had psychological difficulties at the time and was admitted to the acute psychiatric unit in Ennis for a breakdown in Jul 2009.

Counsel for the State, Stephen Coughlan BL, said a number of reports had concluded that the burns were non-accidental.

Mr Nicholas said this was not a case of the mother abandoning the boy, and that it was the mother who brought the boy’s injury to the notice of Shannondoc.

Judge Moran said the woman pleaded guilty and is entitled to a substantial discount because of that.