The Big N.C. Newspapers On SIDS: A Prelude To Another Story Out Of Asheboro

I used to sit on Randolph County's Child Fatality Task Force. The exposure to local dancing celebrities notwithstanding, it was important work.

And it's just one of the reasons I'm savoring the series on SIDS-(Sudden Infant Death Syndrome)-that-isn't which has been front-and-center at the Raleigh N&O all week . . . a series actually written by a team of investigative reporters from the Charlotte Observer.

They're shining light on stuff that those-of-us-on-the-front-lines-of-Pediatrics-in-this-state already knew . . . that legally, abused & neglected children are regarded and treated little better than property in a Courtroom . . . and that the folks doing the grunt work and dealing with the fall-out are little more than pawns caught between warring big-shots (be they "old-school" medical examiners or hot-to-trot DA's).

I'm really surprised that the newspapers have taken the ball and run with it in the way that they have. Taking on the big guns and exposing horrible injustices and educating the general public? Who knew that's what local newspapers were for?

The fairly transparent agenda underlying these stories (an agenda that's actually been a long time coming) really makes you wonder who John Butts (North Carolina's Chief Medical Examiner) pissed off. Cuz he CLEARLY pissed somebody off.

You know it was a lawyer somewhere.

The articles will continue until the end of the week. While I am commenting over at the N&O as the stories roll out, I'm waiting until the end to say more than I already have here.

But I gotta say, I'm feeling the purge of another troublesome Asheboro memory coming on - from way before 2004. That's right. A "SIDS" case that I strongly believed wasn't. A "SIDS" case that could not stand any light or air or a second look because it might reflect badly on Randolph Hospital's controlled affiliate and one of its "most-favored" physicians.

You see, in Asheboro, Pediatricians should be seen (cleaning up the messes for everybody else) and not heard.

Just like children.

Once again, Dr. Mary needed to sit down and shut up.

The story should tie in very nicely.

And/so I'm thinking that "Cradle of Secrets" was actually a good title for this series.