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"Detective Doctor" Chen Fengying reveals child abuse cases with clues: the imminent tragedy is only the tip of the iceberg

2021-07-25T02:08:22.358Z


A 5-year-old girl was suspected of being abused to death by her biological father and stepmother. The incident caused a sensation in the city. Chen Fengying, an Honorary Clinical Associate Professor of the Department of Pediatrics of CUHK and an associate consultant doctor of Pediatrics of Wales Hospital, who has nearly 10 years of experience in handling child abuse cases


A 5-year-old girl was suspected of being abused to death by her biological father and stepmother. The incident caused a sensation in the city.

Chen Fengying, an Honorary Clinical Associate Professor of the Department of Pediatrics of CUHK and an associate consultant of Pediatrics at the Wells Hospital, who has nearly 10 years of experience in handling child abuse cases, said that this tragedy is just the tip of the iceberg, and it is impossible to estimate how many children are living in the shadow of child abuse.


"The treatment of a child abuse family is much more complicated than the treatment of a child with pneumonia." The difficulties encountered in the treatment made Chen Fengying understand that the child abuse family will not appear before him for no reason.

She recalled that there was an old woman who took a healthy and normal baby several months old to the Maternal and Child Health Center for follow-up consultation. "But the mother-in-law smells so bad that she can't answer the question clearly."

The team found that the family involved negligent care, the baby’s mother-in-law was taking drugs, the mother was only in her 10s, the house was full of garbage and smelly, and there were more than 10 cats.


Chen Fengying graduated from the School of Medicine of CUHK in 1998 and then received specialized training in pediatrics at the Prince of Wales Hospital and worked in the Department of Children's Thoracic and Pulmonary Medicine.

Later, she left the front line for family reasons and received community pediatric medical training. She found that many children had developmental and behavioral problems. "I used to want to help children in the hospital, but it turns out that there are many children in the street who need direct help."

She was transferred to the Child Assessment Center of the Department of Health in 2008. By 2012, the government launched the Child Physical and Mental Development Service Plan to take care of children from high-risk families. Chen Fengying also served as the plan coordinator and started handling child abuse cases. It has been nearly 10 years since then.

Chen Fengying graduated from the School of Medicine of CUHK in 1998 and then received specialized training in pediatrics at the Prince of Wales Hospital and worked in the Department of Children's Thoracic and Pulmonary Medicine.

(Profile picture)

High-risk families include parents with mental illness, drug abuse, and under 18 years of age. Most of them will not beckon, so medical staff need to be very sensitive.

For example, she said, an elderly woman brought a few months old baby to the Maternal and Child Health Center for follow-up treatment. "A BB is fat and white, but the mother-in-law is stinky and can't answer the questions clearly." These tiny little things. The signs aroused the attention of doctors and nurses. Upon further questioning, I learned that there were more than 10 cats in the old woman's house, and the baby's mother was only in her 10s.

The hospital immediately contacted the social worker for a home visit and found that the house was full of rubbish and smelly, and the old woman had more drug habit.

As the family was suspected of neglecting care, the team took the baby to the home for care.

Later, she learned that the infant mother had similar experiences in childhood.

Chen Fengying sighed: "Child abuse is not a matter of a generation. People's subconscious mind is influenced by the family, and being a parent will reflect what happened in childhood."

Earlier, an elderly woman took a few-month-old baby to the Maternal and Child Health Center for follow-up treatment, but was eventually found to be a child abuse case by the medical staff.

(Information picture, non-involved health center)

Handling child abuse cases involves multiple departments, and the doctor's professionalism made Chen Fengying feel helpless.

She recalled that there had been hemorrhages in the fundus of the baby's eyes and inside the brain.

This symptom is abnormally consistent with "Shaking Baby Syndrome", that is, the baby's head is violently shaken, and the head is injured by a collision.

However, she has no evidence, so she has to remain rational and medically does not rule out other possibilities. "Theoretically (shaking the baby) can happen, but we have no way of knowing what happens. Being a doctor can't be too emotional, you can't see it alone. When the brain hemorrhages, then someone abused her.” She could only focus on treating the bleeding baby and provide medical reports. Follow-up investigations were handed over to the SWD and the police, but the results were unknown.

Handling child abuse cases involves multiple departments, and the doctor's professionalism made Chen Fengying feel helpless.

(Photo by Liao Yanxiong)

Chen Fengying has gone through many battles and wears a white robe as calm and rational, but she refuses to be numb, and she often sheds tears over the misfortune of the abused child.

She said that she seldom talked to people around her about child abuse cases of work contact, fearing that they would have similar experiences and accidentally touch their pain points.

When she is sad, she chooses to vent her emotions through educating social workers and medical care, and try her best to promote the protection of children's information to reduce the possibility of them being harmed eventually.

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The 5-year-old girl was on the verge of death due to long-term abuse by her biological father and stepmother in 2018. The case opened at the beginning of this year. The two were convicted of murder in April, causing a sensation in society.

Chen Fengying described that this tragedy has a "shocking bird" effect on child protection issues, and it has caused different industries to reflect on whether similar incidents have occurred around them. The number of child abuse cases received by the New Territories East Hospital Network in the past three months has increased by 30% compared with usual. There has also been an increase, most of which are obviously physical abuse cases.

When Chen Fengying was sad, she vented her emotions through educating social workers and medical nurses, and tried her best to promote the protection of children's information.

(Photo by Liao Yanxiong)

Child abuse has always existed silently. Chen Fengying believes that the imminent tragedy is only the tip of the iceberg, and pointed out that there is still a lot of room for improvement in Hong Kong's mechanism for handling child abuse cases.

At present, the general follow-up period for child abuse cases is two years. If the evaluation indicates that the child is not physically and mentally affected, the file will be closed.

She believes that follow-up work is worth reviewing, such as establishing a more complete psychological evaluation mechanism in hospitals, but due to insufficient resources, it is easier said than done.

Because of the limited resources of the hospital, Chen Fengying prefers to reduce serious child abuse cases through preliminary work.

She urged the relevant authorities to clarify the legal responsibilities for protecting children and set clear boundaries for corporal punishment legislation to narrow the gray area.

In addition, she also hopes that the authorities can establish a unified platform for people from different sectors to seek assistance, and integrate the abuse clues they provide, so that more abused children can be discovered.

Jordan’s 5-year-old boy was left alone at home. The security found out that he called his mother for child abuse and the nanny was arrested. An eight-month-old girl B landed and a 50-year-old woman was arrested for child abuse. A 5-year-old girl’s torture case will be brought up next month. | The first 4 months Received 299 cases of child abuse police: a shocking increase in 5 year old girl torture cases | Mandatory reporting of child abuse amendments Child abuse cases have been referred for 13 times and have not been dealt with. Lei Zhang Shenjia said that professional intervention should be timely and appropriate. Lei Zhang Shenjia: Do not worry that mandatory reporting of child abuse will be abused. Legislation needs to be hierarchical and step-by-step. Last year, there were 769 child abuse cases. % An 8-year-old child has not seen his parents for three months. The Social Welfare Department receives about 1,000 child abuse cases each year. The Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse: reorganization of the family is at high risk

01News

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2021-07-25

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