S05 Ep05: The Breaking Point
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What warning does the podcast give to listeners?
True Story Media. Before we begin, a quick warning that in this show, we discuss child abuse, and this content may be difficult for some listeners. If you or anyone you know is a victim or survivor of medical child abuse, please go to munchausensupport.com to connect with professionals who can help. As 2019 comes to a close, Em, now 10 years old, is keeping up with her intensive gymnastics program, all while Sophie is taking C back and forth between Seattle Children's and Duke Medical Center in North Carolina. And her condition, according to this note in Sophie's phone, is dire. Quote, This AHC and severe gastroparesis and autonomic dysfunction and intestinal dismobility is actually from the darkest pit in hell. But our citizenship is in heaven. So we rejoice knowing this won't be her forever. Then the pandemic hits.
Mysterious pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan, China. A new type of coronavirus.
How did the pandemic impact the Hartmans' lives?
There are fears a rapidly spreading virus has reached Australia. This is a rapidly emerging situation.
The first US case has been detected.
The number of affected countries has tripled.
The World Health Organization has just declared that this is a pandemic.
In September of 2020, C is six years old and, like children everywhere during the pandemic, switches to virtual learning when the school locks down. A month into that school year, in October of 2020, Sophie writes a letter to C's school, which has a robust program for special needs students, explaining C's worsening condition. She writes, Some new neurological, visual, and also endocrine issues have come up in the last few months, and there is worry among the team at Seattle Children's for a brain mass. She was recently diagnosed with central precocious puberty. Yes, she is in full-blown puberty, which is why she has grown so exponentially and is maturing physically and looks like a teenager.
What allegations were made against Sophie Hartman?
And the thinking right now is that there may be a brain tumor which is causing that. By the following month, Sophie would pull C out of school completely, saying that even virtual schooling was too much for her daughter to bear with her health. On top of everything happening with COVID, Seattle, like many major cities, had large protests and civil actions around the Black Lives Matter movement, which saw a swell in support following the death of George Floyd in the summer of 2020. there was a new scrutiny on the deep systemic racism that permeates every institution in America. And this was on Sophie's radar as well.
This is where I'm going to get emotional because if the complaint is coming from this hospital, I am so, like, I am so over Seattle Children's. I have a call in a few days because they have this whole investigation going on with systemic racism.
The investigation Sophie is referring to followed the resignation of a beloved Black doctor named Ben Danielson, who was the director of a clinic that served mostly Black and brown families in Seattle. Danielson resigned in protest in November 2020, saying that Seattle Children's wasn't upholding its commitment to racial equity in a variety of ways, pointing to the lack of translation services and the frequency with which security was called on people of color. This led to an internal investigation and the firing of at least one person in senior leadership. Seattle has a reputation for being progressive, but the truth is far more complicated. While you're likely to see plenty of Black Lives Matter signs driving around town, the city has a shameful history of redlining, school segregation, and, well, just all of the things that plague every city in America. And of course, how this all intersects with medicine is especially complex.
The medical system is extremely fraught for Black Americans, who get worse care overall and who died at much higher rates during the pandemic. This was the background in which Sophie's building tension with Seattle Children's Hospital was playing out.
How does systemic racism intersect with medical treatment?
But the ways in which systemic racism in medicine affect Black parents of Black children is not the same as how it plays out for white parents of Black children. as we discussed with our expert on transracial adoption, Chad Golder Sojourner.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What warning does the podcast give to listeners?
0:04–1:06
2
How did the pandemic impact the Hartmans' lives?
1:06–2:05
3
What allegations were made against Sophie Hartman?
2:05–4:04
4
How does systemic racism intersect with medical treatment?
4:04–5:14
5
What evidence was collected in the investigation?
5:14–9:22
6
What psychological patterns were observed in Sophie?
9:22–11:52
7
What role did Detective Michael Lee play in the investigation?
11:52–13:28
8
What insights does Olivia LaVoie provide about the case?
13:28–51:01