Roxanne Carrillo and her team at Unit 49 showed how teamwork and going the extra mile made a difficult child removal and placement a success. CPS took custody of a nine-year-old girl suffering from extreme medical neglect. Her mother was addicted to heroin and her father had abandoned her.
The child was paralyzed from the waist down during an auto accident, and her mother was also injured, leading to painkiller addiction and then heroin abuse. The mother had been in and out of rehab and had failed to provide for her daughter’s basic needs.
As a result, the girl remained wheelchair bound, even though medical experts determined that she could learn to walk with braces and physical therapy. CPS couldn’t find a placement that could care for her right away, so Unit 49 acted fast to care for the child and prepare her for an overnight stay at the CPS office.
The unit took the girl to the hospital to install a different type of catheter that CPS staff could maintain at the office. Supervisor Roxanne Carrillo brought linens and pillows from home and set up a bed in a visitation room with a couch and TV for the child to watch until she fell asleep.
The next day CPS had trouble finding a placement but eventually found a foster home near Waco that could care for this little girl.
It was a classic example of teamwork by both Unit 49 and the CPS Placement Unit to ensure this
child’s safety.