Do you ever look at some people and wonder why they chose a particular line of work because it's just about the last thing they should be doing? Consider the nurse who just got sentenced to 10 years in jail for allowing a 14-year-old girl to starve to death. A 14-year-old girl, I should say, who had cerebral palsy and was under Mollie Parsons' care.
Allowing a child to die of malnutrition is the very antithesis of what the nursing profession is all about. We look to these women and men as professional nurturers, the people who seek out the job specifically because they care about people. But Parsons didn't care for 14-year-old Makayla Norman.
In fact, this nurse did such a horrific job that Makayla was just 28 pounds at the time of her death. Twenty-eight pounds at 14 years old. Picture that for a moment.
There's no way Parsons didn't see the problem there. You don't need to be a trained professional to notice a weight loss that drastic or to figure out what causes it. But Parsons was! She specifically chose a profession where she'd be caring for people like Makayla, little kids who depended on her 100 percent to give them what they need to survive.
And she failed at the job.
But nursing isn't the kind of job you can just fail at and bail out. This isn't ringing up blood oranges as navel oranges at the checkout line or printing 150 copies of a flier instead of 15 at the copy shop. This was a child's life, and now that child is gone.
Mollie Parsons was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter, failing to provide for a functionally impaired child, and tampering with records. She got more time than Makayla's mother, who was sentenced to nine years.
Really makes you think about the people who choose a life of caring for others, doesn't it? This world is full of thousands of them who are there for the right reasons. And then there are the Mollie Parsons of the world ...
Do you think 10 years in prison is long enough for this crime?
Image via Montgomery County Sheriff
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Comments 57
Anything less than life in prison for abuse or neglect of a child (especially if it results in death) is not enough, let alone 10 measly years.
I am outraged and sickened. I should think this would be worse than a murder in the first degree sentence, the continued neglect IS torture to the weakest member of society, a sick child.
With "good behavior" this woman could see her freedom in just 6 years or so. I would have felt better if she got a 22 year "life" sentence with no early release and allot of therapy.
Where was everybody else? How did no one notice and report this. Also, she needs a life sentance. This is more cruel than shooting the child.
10 years, ridiculous. You know her fat ass was eating plenty of food. Disgusting waste of skin.
Is no one else seeing that her own mother was involved in this and LET it happen???? Did the mother hire this woman on purpose knowing that she wouldn't take care of her daughter? What's wrong with people....
This so so sad! She should've reported it, BUT she is not 100% at fault. I read that she only made like weekly visits or so. What about the MOM?
Doesnt matter what we all think...she was sentenced by her peers under the statutes of the law and thats what stands.
I'm so confused. Where were the Physicians in this case? How was she only under the care of a nurse and her mother? How long had this been going on? How was no one else aware of this?