So is the child in danger?” asks Nicolas Duval, 53 years old. In front of him, around the round table, two women look at each other for a moment, before letting out a long sigh. He smiles, the two mini dimples in his cheeks giving him a false air of Bruce Willis. The deputy director of the medico-social action site on rue Vauban, in Nevers, is used to the answer to this question remaining unanswered. On this October day, his back leaning against the back of his chair, both hands in the pocket of his sweatshirt, he listens.
” It is complicated “, ends up letting go of Delphine (who did not wish to give her name), 39 years old. The social worker then recounts her visits to Arthur (first name has been changed), 5 months old. She says the child puts coins and lighters in his mouth, without his mother reacting. That Arthur lets his little hands drag on the power strip, that his rare toys are placed next to glasses of beer and ashtrays overflowing with cigarette butts, in a bare living room where the smell of dirty diapers floats. “One morning, as his parents didn’t wake up, the baby got tired of tossing and turning in his bed, he ended up smearing poop on the wall. The mother wanted to repaint over it, but the smell is still there,” Delphine specifies, rolling her eyes to the sky.
Arthur’s mother is 18 years old, two children from different fathers, pregnancies that fall upon her without her really wanting them, like almost everything in her life. “She is so deficient,” adds Alexandra (first name has been changed), childcare nurse. Her mother, an alcoholic and drug addict, placed her in care when she was 6 years old, her father was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for rape, her boyfriend hit her before leaving when she announced her pregnancy, and her current boyfriend doesn’t want to take care of her first child, who is not his.
Report for negligence
In September, Arthur was hospitalized for a few days at Nevers hospital for significant weight loss. His parents rarely came to see him, and only occasionally. One day, the nurse asks them to stay a little while she finishes visiting the other patients. When he returned, they were gone, leaving Arthur alone in his room, a pacifier in his mouth. The hospital made a report to the Nevers social services. Delphine and Alexandra then met the baby’s parents. During the first interview, Arthur’s father lost his temper: ” Who is it ? Tell me who is it? » He wanted to know who was behind this summons and was reviewing all his enemies.
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