ED Provider Notes by Darleen F Connor, MD
at 10/10/2014 11:58 PM
Physical Exam
Vitals: BP 117/71 mmHg I Pulse 85 I Temp (Src) 98.3 F (36.8 C) (Oral) I Resp 16 I Ht 5’7” (1,702m) I Wt 52.571 kg (115 lb 14.4 oz) I BMI 30.83 kg/m2 I SpO2 99%
Primary survey: Patient is unable to speak, bilateral breath sounds. 2+radial pulses and dorsal pedal pulses. GCS 15. Pupils are equal, round and reactive to light and accommodation. Patient in c-collar.
Secondary survey:
General: Unconscious, unresponsive to sounds, touch or light
HEENT: pupils mid-sized and equally reactive, EOMI, conjunctiva clear, oropharynx without erythema or exudates, MMM. No periorbital, no mastoid. Bruising. No otorrhea or rhinorrhea. Patient has a 22cm laceration to the vertex of her scalp, fractured skull.
Neck: Midline cervical bleeding, no LAD, supple. No step-offs.
Chest/Pulmonary: Normal work of breathing, chest clear with equal lung sounds bilaterally, no wheezes or crackles
Cardiovascular: RRR with normal S1 and S2, no murmurs or gallops appreciated, peripheral pulses 2+ bilaterally
Abdomen: Soft
Back/Spine: No deformity, no midline abrasions/contusions, no step-offs
Extremities: Patient has some bruising to the medial aspect of her anterior mid right tibia tenderness. Patient has some bruising exhibited. Patient has some swelling over the lateral malleoli with inversion. Patient has some swelling to third digit on right.
Skin: Warm and dry, skin color normal, no rashes appreciated
Neuro: Unconscious
Psychiatric: N/A
Assessment:
TBI-SAH
Head laceration; skull fracture; suspected traumatic brain injury; possible brain damage
Plan:
Re-check vitals
Rape kit examination
Imaging: Plain radiograph(s): and CT scan(s): head
Counsel patient/family
Re-evaluate patient
Check response to treatment
Planned Disposition: Hospitalization
Medical Decision Making & ED Course
Ms. Williams is a 21 y.o. female who presents . . .
Diagnosis & Disposition
Diagnosis:
TBI (traumatic brain injury), with loss of consciousness of 30 minutes and more, initial encounter
SAH (subarachnoid hemorrhage)
Laceration of scalp without foreign body, initial encounter
Sexual assault with penetration; rape kit ordered
Author: Darleen F. Connor, MD
Electronically signed by Darleen F. Connor, MD at 10/10/2014 11:58 PM
Central New York Daily
Still Searching for Leads in Williams Case
(utica) Nearly three weeks after Forestport resident Mallie Williams was assaulted and left for dead on Hawthorne Street late on the evening of October 10, there are no clues as to who the assailant or assailants were.
“How many assailants, we believe one, but we’re not sure,” said Utica Police Chief Bruce Koloskey. “The investigation is ongoing and forensics is actively analyzing all evidence collected at the
scene.”
The victim’s mother, Lucia Williams, 40, and members of her church (Faith Love Congregation) ask for ongoing prayers for the young woman. Chief Koloskey continues to urge any witness or anyone with information about the crime to come forth.
“Call the tip line if you have any information at all,” he said. “Even if you think it’s only remotely related, call.”
Mallie Williams’s neighbor, William T. Jones, interrupted Chief Koloskey at a press conference to ask what would become of the bystander who had posted a photo of Miss Williams, taken at the scene, on his Facebook page.
“Nothing,” Chief Koloskey responded. “What he did was repulsive, but not illegal. And the photo has now been taken down.”
Mr. Jones, visibly upset, began to argue with Chief Koloskey and eventually was led out of the conference room by armed police officers. Multiple telephone calls to his North Sterns home went unreturned.
The Adirondack Mountains Standard
The Story Behind the Story
by Jerry Townsend
No one can claim that William T. Jones, lifelong resident of rural North Sterns (about twenty miles northeast of Rome), is anything but persistent.
Remember when Jones’s young neighbor and friend Mallie Williams was viciously attacked on the late-night streets of Utica and left for dead? Remember how the police department hasn’t been able to figure out who did it? Remember how Mallie Williams has been unresponsive ever since? Remember how, early on, Mr. Jones sought legal guardianship of Miss Williiams over her mother in a highly publicized court challenge because he believed Miss Williams would have chosen to terminate her pregnancy?
I’ll go out on a limb and state that I’m pretty damn certain that no one with even a passing acquaintance with the nightly news has forgotten much of anything about Mallie Williams. Or about her mother, Lucia Williams, who was granted custody of her grandchild. At last report, however, Lucia Williams is fighting terminal cancer and hasn’t been seen in public solo, without the surround-sound protection of the flock of the Faith Love Congregation, since days after her daughter was assaulted.
It’s also not going out on a limb to state that most of us in these here parts remember William T. Jones, the neighbor who came out of the woodwork after the girl’s hospitalization, claiming that he should be named legal guardian because “the goddamn right-to-lifers shouldn’t be using Mallie as an incubator.”
Not a kind thing to say, certainly, but set that aside for a moment and ask yourself this: Was he right? Was William T. Jones speaking the truth?
By all accounts, Mr. Jones, who is in his mid-60s, has been a father figure to the young woman for most of her life. Neighbors and friends describe him as fiercely protective of both Mallie and her underage brother.
It’s possible that William T. was lying, or at least inaccurate, when he claimed to know what Mallie Williams would have wanted with regard to her child, conceived in rape and born while she lay unconscious. It’s also possible that Lucia Williams, by all accounts a profoundly religious woman, was convinced that the decision to proceed with the pregnancy was in her daughter’s best
interests.
What’s done is done. Hindsight is not foresight. But I am haunted by the decision and its ripple effects. I am haunted by the existence of a baby whose parentage and beginnings of life are so fraught. I am haunted by the fact that Mallie Williams is still alive, still breathing, still unaware of all that transpired without her conscious knowledge. And I suspect that I am not alone in my uneasy and troubled wonderings.
Syracuse Star
[Editorial]
Ever since the news of Mallie Williams’s pregnancy broke last month, rain or shine, snow or sleet, the protesters have shown up every morning at St. John’s hospital in timeworn Utica. In separate circles they march, signs gripped in both hands. The difference between the signs, whether homemade or professionally printed, and the two separate circles of protesters, is clear. Half the signs bear photos of smiling infants, with black headlines below
each:
life begins at conception
abortion stops a beating heart
at six weeks i had fingernails
The other half bear no smiling babies. Instead, photos of Mallie Williams — from her high school graduation, mostly — are posted above equally black headlines.
don’t like abortion? don’t have one.
knowledge + choice = power. mallie williams has neither.
w
hat would mallie do?
In some ways the scene in the parking lot of St. John’s depicts a wearyingly familiar battleground of anti-abortion vs. pro-choice. You don’t have to travel far in this country to find billboards advocating for either side. Churches with white crosses on their front lawns, abortion clinics with rings of protesters and equal numbers of security guards and volunteers.
But in a fundamental way, this is a different battle entirely. The fetus — product of a rape in which the assailant is unknown — whose future is being fought over is growing within the womb of a young woman likely never to gain full consciousness. It’s equally likely that Mallie Williams, massage therapist and graduate of Mohawk Valley Community College, would not have imagined herself as a fixture on the nightly news.
In the absence of Mallie’s decision-making capability, a grim battle is being fought over whether Miss Williams would choose to abort or carry her fetus to term. Attorneys for both Lucia Williams, Mallie’s mother, and William T. Jones, the family’s lifelong neighbor and friend, have laid out the case for guardianship of the young woman and, thus, decision-making ability about the pregnancy.
Mr. Jones has advocated that the fetus be aborted on grounds that a) no woman should be forced to bring forth a child conceived of rape, and b) it is morally wrong for a woman to be forced into motherhood. On the other side, Lucia Williams belongs to a church that is against abortion in any instance, no matter the circumstances, and that church has rallied around her and is providing support in the form of shelter and payment of legal bills. Time is closing in, though, and unless the judge shortly awards guardianship to Mr. Jones — a highly unusual outcome, according to legal sources — the advancement of Miss Williams’s pregnancy will render Mr. Jones’s argument moot.
Meanwhile, Mallie Williams’s face, familiar by now to anyone within reach of a newspaper, a television or the internet, hovers silently on signs hoisted high. What Would Mallie Do, indeed. The decision must be made. But by whom? We believe that this is a decision best left to medical professionals. But public opinion, it seems, is not with us.
Central New York Daily
Letters to the Editor
To the Editor,
There has been a lot of back and forthing with regard to the young woman Mallie. In my view it doesn’t matter how she came to be pregnant. She is carrying life within her and that life is innocent and deserves to be given a chance. Let life make the call.
— Martha Sorovich
To the Editor,
Put yourself in the young woman’s place. She is a vegetable in terms of brain, right? But the baby inside her is not a vegetable. If the young woman could still think, she would want her baby to be born. What’s done is done and now they should do everything possible for the baby.
— Harrison L. Stupak
To the Editor:
What bothers me about the whole Mallie Williams incident is all the articles that are being written about her. All the people asking for prayers for her, all the people claiming that they knew her, that they went to school with her, that they knew her when she was little, that they know her family, that they know her neighbors, that they know everything about it. Excuse my language but this is B — — — t. We are the ones who know Mallie. We in Sterns. We are the ones who should be asking the questions and getting the answers.
It is wrong that others who don’t know anything about her are trying to take over her story.
— Sara Maggio
To the Editor,
With regard to the idiot who presumes to “put himself in the place of ” the young woman in the coma, I’m putting myself in her place right now and you know what? I would say Hell No. My body, my life. Abort now, before it’s too late. Keep stalling your way through the courts and the right-to-lifers will have left her for dead all over again.
— Hilda Borokovich
To the Editor,
If that baby was mine I would give it a biblical name. Like Matthew or Jesus.
— Makenzy Wilson
To the Editors,
“Abortion stops a beating heart.” Yes, it does. Isn’t that what it’s supposed to do? I got pregnant when I was 18 and I had an abortion. This was not an easy decision. I was still in high school, living with my parents and my younger sister. My parents would have helped me, I’m sure, but I never told them about the pregnancy. I didn’t want to hurt them. My boyfriend at the time and I made a mutual decision and we went to the clinic together. Was it hard? Yes. Did I feel sad and do I still sometimes feel sad? Yes. Was it the right decision? Yes.
But here’s the thing: As I see it, none of what happened to me, and none of what anyone might feel about a fetus’s right to live, has anything to do with Mallie Williams. This whole horrible situation is not about abortion or a woman’s right to choose whether and when she wants to have a child. Nor is it about the rights of a fetus, either. Both sides are using the baby as a means to an end. That poor girl is nothing but a lump of breathing meat.
What this is about is control. About who gets to decide someone else’s future. I know that something has to be done, one way or another, but God help me, I don’t know what that should be. Poor Lucia, poor William T., and poor, poor Mallie.
— Name withheld
To the Editor,
I would be very happy to give that baby a good home. I have wanted a baby my whole life. I never met the right guy but I know I would be a good mama and I am wondering where is the sign-up list? I can provide references and I would like to be considered for an interview. Thank you.
— Name withheld
Observer
Mother of Assault Victim Dies
Lucia Williams, 41, originally of North Sterns, NY, and current resident of Marcy, NY, died yesterday at St. Luke’s hospital. At the time of her death, Ms. Williams was battling advanced pancreatic
cancer.
Lucia Williams was predeceased by her husband, Starr, and leaves behind a son, Charlie, 16, a grandson, and a daughter, Mallie, who has been unresponsive since a brutal assault last October. Ms. Williams worked as an occupational therapist at Forever Home, an establishment for developmentally delayed children, for most of her adult life.
“She was a hard worker and she will be missed,” said her former supervisor Eduardo Perez. “She had a beautiful touch with children who didn’t respond to many others.” Ms. Williams was interred next to the grave of her husband in the North Sterns Cemetery. There will be no public service.
Observer
Williams, Lucia, 41 of North Sterns and Marcy, New York, of cancer, last Thursday. Ms. Williams became nationally recognized after a vicious assault on the streets of Utica left her daughter, Mallie, near death. In the months immediately following the assault, an equally vicious legal battle ensued over the guardianship of Mallie Williams, who is currently a long-term patient in the rehabilitation wing of St. John’s.
“Our sister Lucia has gone to be with God,” stated Carol Farigant, worship director of the Faith Love Congregation in Whitesboro, NY.
“Lucia was a faithful servant of God,” said Horace Worth, treasurer of the organization, “and we take comfort in knowing that she is in a better place now.”
“In the midst of tremendous darkness, Lucia was led by God to our church, and it was here that she found light and faith,” added Ms. Farigant. “We are pleased that we were able to offer her comfort and even though we are saddened by her passing, we know that she is now in a far better place, a place of everlasting light.”
A private service was held over the weekend. No public funeral is scheduled.
Observer
[Editorial]
“Foster parents play an essential role in providing temporary, safe, nurturing homes for children when their parents are unable to care for them. New York State continues to find permanent, safe and caring homes for our children.”
This statement was taken from the home page of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services. We at the Observer reference it today in relation to the child of Mallie Williams, born last week and immediately transferred, by order of the court, into the custody of Lucia Williams, mother of Mallie Williams. Lucia Williams is the baby’s grandmother, not foster parent, but given that there is a chance, however slim, that Mallie Williams may one day awake, we believe that the “temporary, safe, nurturing home” mission applies in this instance.
Despite the unusual and trying circumstances that have surrounded the Williams case from the beginning — a young woman assaulted and left for dead with a brain injury and subsequent brain infection; pregnant as a result of rape; the unwitting subject of both anti-abortion and abortion rights groups; the fate of both herself and her unborn child fought over bitterly — we believe that this custody placement represents the best outcome for the child.
We recognize the strong emotions that have influenced public opinion, perhaps unduly, over the fate of both Mallie Williams and the child. But in our opinion, the fraught testimony and painful events have all along obscured the heart of the matter: the victimization of a young woman unable to speak for herself, and the fate of a child we may never know if she would have wanted.
Now is the time to put aside acrimony. Now is the time to let go thoughts of religion, politics, victims’ rights and the wishes of those closest to the victim. Now is the time to focus on the innocence of a child born into circumstances beyond his control. Let us all set aside our differences, that this child may enjoy the rights and privileges of normal life.
The Adirondack Mountains Standard
The Story Behind the Story
by Jerry Townsend
Before she was a name in the headlines, before her photo was plastered in newspapers and on television and computer screens nationwide, before she became a symbol for the religious right and the feminist left, Mallie Williams was a girl who lived a quiet life in the rural hinterlands north of Utica.
Many of the residents who call the picturesque Sterns Valley home are Amish. They tend their small dairy farms quietly. Barefoot Amish women can be seen hanging laundry — blue, gray and white — on clotheslines, Amish children can be seen trundling reel lawn mowers back and forth on the lawn or weeding enormous vegetable gardens, while Amish men are usually in the fields or barns. They coexist peacefully with their non-Amish neighbors, many of whom are also dairy
The Opposite of Fate Page 8