The patient can be put into a padded chair that measures weight, or the patient can be put into a sling rather easily by rolling her to one side, tucking sling under her, rolling her to the other side and pulling it through then hooking the sling to the machine. BTW, this “roll, tuck, roll the other way, pull” method is also used to put clean bedding under bedridden patients.
Also, the last couple of times kaylasmom was hospitalized, I noticed that her hospital bed was equipped with a scale. Dunno how reliable those things are, though.
It is against the law for an employer to get your DNA. As well it should be.
A court could order it as part of a criminal investigation, but I doubt seriously that a court would order all the males who work in a hospital to submit to a DNA test. It would likely be the same sort of standard as a search warrant. They’d need probable cause to believe that an individual committed a crime. The fact that some male obviously did commit a crime isn’t enough to force all males in the vicinity to undergo genetic testing.
It seems likely that there will be other evidence that can be gathered. The perpetrator likely had intimate knowledge of care schedules or was one of the woman’s caregivers. Which will narrow the search a lot.
Some of that would depend on the initial size of the woman, and also how the baby was carried. We had neighbors who were surprised when we started pushing a baby carriage around the neighborhood, as my wife didn’t show a lot (and he was a 7lb something baby).
Also, the woman would have been on a constant calorie diet (no one knowing she was pregnant), so her only weight gain would have been the baby.
Leaving aside all the reprehensible misconduct issues for a moment, I’m kind of shocked that a (presumably healthy) baby can be born to a comatose patient at all.
It could very well be that they were extremely careless, another patient sexually abused her, and they were trying to cover up their incompetence.
It could also have been someone visiting another patient. And it’s entirely possible that one or more staff members noticed, at least enough to suspect, but didn’t want to be the one to officially ask the question.
According to the link, the mother was in the institution because of a traumatic brain injury, not because of any problems with her uterus or other reproductive organs. Gestation is pretty deeply embedded in the DNA, so to speak - it doesn’t require much by way of brain function.
I have no idea of the effects of coma on reproductive health, but as long as she got adequate nutrition, which she seems to have done, I would expect the “housekeeping” functions of the body - digestion, excretion, and even (God help us) reproduction, to degenerate slowly enough to allow pregnancy. That’s not to say that this kind of thing is a good idea, or not high-risk, as well as morally outrageous. IANAObstetrician.
The linked article quotes her mother as saying the patient is able to say Yes and No. I have no idea if that is accurate, or the facilitated communication thing, or something else.
Women can give birth under extreme circumstances.
Regards,
Shodan
Our local news is all over this story for some reason. It appears there were no CCTV cameras in this place. One parent of another patient said that he was installing his own in the room. The facility decided (a bit late) that men could not go into female patient’s rooms alone any more.
A DNA test on the child and mother might give some clues as to the background of the father, which could narrow it down. And men working there could be given the opportunity to voluntarily give a DNA sample to the police which could narrow it down more.
DNA has not been mentioned in any of the news stories I’ve seen, which is interesting.
Law & Order had a storyline like this. Turned out the victim’s mother wanted a grandchild and paid some dude to knock-up her daughter. Lots of legal highjinks ensued.
This has happened before back in the 90s. In the previous case, the male employees volunteered to submit DNA samples and the culprit was found:
Yeah but the actual act of giving birth is not a passive experience, as far as I’m aware. How does it happen when the mother is comatose? I assume if there was a C-section it would have been mentioned.
The linked article quotes a different patient’s mother as saying a different patient can say Yes and No. No family of the pregnant patient was quoted in the article.
It’s not a passive experience, but I don’t think it takes much brain function either.
I have never given birth, but I believe it can be done even under general anesthesia. Didn’t they use to knock women out altogether?
I must have been mistaken- thanks for the correction.
Regards,
Shodan
Even from a religious perspective, this is wildly incorrect.
God allowed the free will of the perpetrator to override God’s choice on the matter.
God wouldn’t be much of a God if He gave us free will, and then overrode it whenever it was convenient.
If I had the knowledge and power to stop the abuse of this woman, I would have. Anyone who wouldn’t isn’t worth much, morally speaking, IMO.
I couldn’t sit there and watch silently as a comatose woman was raped…but then again I’m not God, thank ghod.
While suspecting male staff is a logical thing, it doesn’t have to be staff. It could be a frequent male visitor, perhaps someone visiting another patient who goes where he shouldn’t. Or even a one-time creep who got in, maybe with the intent to steal stuff, and took advantage of someone who couldn’t speak or fight back.
All in all, pretty damn scary stuff.
I don’t have any objection to her bringing that here, it is a related topic.
Strange. I thought the female body had a way of shutting that whole thing down.
nm, my statement would need to be in Great Debates.