Gcu Case Studies

Dr. Bruce D. Perry was invited by the staff of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) to evaluate six year old Justin, who kept on throwing his feces and food at the staff. When Dr. Perry arrived at the PICU, he heard the loud screaming before he found the boy who was obviously malnourished and was wearing a loose diaper while sitting in a cage. The crib looked similar to a dog cage with iron bars and plywood wired to the top. Justin was being treated for severe pneumonia and would fight the staff when they would try to draw blood and he would tire out his IVs. Dr. Perry knew that the more anxious someone is then the harder it is for them to express their true feelings, thoughts, and history. He also knew it is much more difficult to form a positive relationship with a child who is anxious (Perry & Szalavitz, 2009). Instead of rushing in to question Justin, Dr. Perry wants to give him the opportunity to meet him and let him have control.
After reading Justin’s file, Dr.
Perry learns that he was placed in his grandmother’s care when he was two months old. Justin’s grandmother was a very nurturing woman, but was severely obese. When Justin was eleven months old, his grandmother became ill and died a few weeks later. He then was placed in the care of Arthur, who was Justin’s grandmother’s boyfriend. Arthur was in his late sixties and did not know what to do with a young toddler so he called child protective services. CPS asked Arthur if he could keep Justin while they found him a permanent. Since Justin was with Arthur, CPS took their time while they handle more urgent cases. Arthur was clueless when it came caring for a child and since he made his living as a dog breeder, he applied that knowledge to raising Justin (Perry & Szalavitz, 2009). Justin was kept in a dog cage for five years and his only companionship came from
dogs. Dr. Perry also learned that Justin was diagnosed with severe brain damage and was developmentally delayed. He was unable to walk and had learned a limited amount of words by the time most children were speaking in sentences. However, the strange thing was that no one questioned Arthur when he brought in Justin for his medical check-ups. Justin has been tested for various physical ailments and has even had his brain scanned which showed shrinkage of the cerebral cortex and enlargement of the fluid-filled ventricles in the middle of brain. In conclusion, Justin has the brain that looks similar to someone who has advance Alzheimer’s disease (Perry & Szalavitz, 2009). As Justin grew, he had not progressed in fine motor, large motor, behavioral, cognitive or speech and language capabilities (Perry & Szalavitz, 2009). Arthur had limited understanding to raising a child and was not intentionally cruel towards Justin. He was given food, shelter, discipline, and some type of compassion. Arthur let Justin and the dogs out daily for excuse, but did not understand that the reason that he acted like an animal was because he was treated like one. After Dr. Perry was done review Justin’s charts, he first began to interact with the child in an approachable manner and gave him a muffin. Overtime Justin received daily visits from Dr. Perry and was kept away from chaos and loud noises. Justin’s behavior improvement quickly and each day was a better. He stopped throwing food and feces and showed signs for recognition and comprehension of verbal commands. Justin also began to show signs of a sense of humor and was affectionate to Dr. Perry and other staff members. Soon Justin was given a speech and language therapist who helped him be exposed to words he missed during his childhood. After two weeks, Justin was discharged and placed with a foster family and he made great progress in the following months.