https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/nurse-loses-license-stabbing-autistic-boy-needles-64998033

Autistic boy stabbed with syringes, and nurse loses license

• ByTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Aug 15, 2019, 3:41 PM ET                         

New Jersey regulators have revoked the nursing license of a woman caught on security cameras stabbing an autistic teenager with syringes when he failed to comply with her instructions, officials said Thursday.

The state attorney general's Division of Consumer Affairs announced in a news release that the New Jersey Board of Nursing had revoked the registered nursing license of Naomi Derrick because of the 2016 episode at an Atlantic City hospital's psychiatric unit. Officials said they also plan to begin proceedings to revoke Derrick's license for respiratory therapy.

A phone call to a listing for Derrick was not immediately returned Thursday.

"Intimidating and terrorizing a developmentally disabled child who is completely dependent on your care is a horror that should not be visited upon anyone," said Paul R. Rodríguez, acting director of the Division of Consumer Affairs.

The department release said that a co-worker witnessed Derrick threaten the boy with needle-stabbing during her shift in May 2016. It also said several stabbings were captured by security cameras in the teen's room.

During a hearing over the incident, Derrick said she only showed the boy the needle as a threat. Department officials said she claimed an examination of the boy the next day showed no bruising or bleeding.

Derrick had asked the department to suspend her license instead of revoking it, arguing she had no complaints during her previous eight years as a nurse. The woman said another nurse had instructed her verbally that the threats were the best way to get the teen to comply with her.

Derrick said the boy would call her names, pull her hair, throw sheets at her and leave his room to visit other patients during sleeping hours.

She had been charged in 2017 with aggravated assault, terroristic threats, child endangerment and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. Atlantic County prosecutors allowed her to enter a pretrial program in January.

In addition to losing her license, Derrick was also ordered to pay 10% of the cost of the investigation.

Bill A3922 Requires Training of Certain Staff and Health Care Professionals for the Developmentally Disabled

Bill A3922 is before the Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee. 

It is important that it goes through immediately.

It may not be enough to stop injustices to the Developmentally Disabled, but it is a beginning.

Hopefully this is not too little too late for this fragile population.

SYNOPSIS

     Requires training of certain staff and health care professionals in interacting with individuals with developmental disabilities.

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I have been writing Senators and Assemblymen to push this through.

This is October 2017.  We have taken a step back in time by at least 75 years or so.

True scenario:  A doctor in a North NJ Hospital walks into the room of a developmentally disabled patient getting ready for Surgery and says, “Oh, he’s retarded!” 

Another Doctor states, “He’s retarded and doesn’t need anesthesia for the surgery”.

The disabled person takes laxatives to prepare for surgery and has diarrhea and vomiting.  The staff says in front of them, “I’m not paid enough to clean this up”.

Many of these kids they refer to as "retarded" are Autistic and have dual diagnoses.  Many don't talk.  But, most of them understand the spoken word, regardless of their lack of speech and communication.  All of them feel pain, often more so then the normal population.  They all have social inadequacies resulting in a lack of being able to care for themselves.

The disabled person, like many now, are their own guardian.  They are too incapacitated to agree to surgery.  While the doctor waits and the disabled person agonizes in pain, a parent has to be called as a last resort.  A parent who placed the child, left the State, and has had no contact for years.  The Hospital would not allow the staff to have any say in the matter, even though they are high level professionals, clinicians, and social workers from the placement, and who know the disabled person best on a daily basis.

This has got to STOP !

I requested that the staff of Hospitals and the Doctor’s have the same level of training as the State and County Police.

Pass Bill A392

http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2016/Bills/A4000/3922_I1.HTM