One afternoon when I was a chief resident working the Gyn floor. I was at the nurses station when two white men approached the secretary, identified themselves as detectives and asked if there was doctor around that they could talk to. She nodded towards me and I got up and asked what was it they needed. I noticed that with them was a young tearful sullen black girl about 14 or so years old. They asked if it was possible for me to exam on her to see if she had recently been pregnant. I said only with a parent or guardians permission which they showed me a note from her grandmother allowing me to do so.
Asking a nurse to put her in an examining room, I then went in and asked her the usual questions as to her menses, missed periods any symptoms that would suggest pregnancy and finally performed a pelvic exam which indicated not only that she was not pregnant but she was a virgin..
I then went out to question the detectives as to why the exam was requested.
They said the grandmother had called to say that the girl had had a baby and put it in the trash barrel and tried to burn it up.
I had not noticed but they had a parcel wrapped in layers of charred newspaper and on unwrapping it there was a severely burned tiny unidentifiable body that appeared to be a baby. I asked could I check it out more closely. So with them in attendance I tried to dissect a little of it to orient myself as to what it was. After scraping some of the char and trying to cut into the skin with a scalpel I found that it was rubber and with further examination was able to discern it was a toy monkey. We all were stunned and wanted to know what the hell was going on.
So I went back in the room and confronted her about what was going on.
And this is what she told me. “My Nana is a nosey old bitch” who doesn’t trust me and would watch my periods and check my pads and she just knew I was pregnant. So I knew I could make her think I had an abortion so I took a toy rubber monkey and I wrapped it in newspaper and set it on fire in the trash barrel and I knew she was watching me. And she dug it out and called the police. “So fooled her and no better for her”.
