I want to say one thing about Darlie’s neck wound and the crap about it being so severe. I worked in a jail and had to do first aid on a young woman who had slit her own throat. She was taken to surgery as well but in her case her neck was stapled together like Frankenstein’s monster not steri-stripped like Darlie. They took her in for surgery out of precaution. The young woman I dealt with cut her throat 3 times with a blade she had taken out of her razor before actually nicking her artery. 2 mm away doesn’t seem like much but to actually cut it isn’t easy. Unless Darlie had her fingers on her pulse she likely had no clue how close she was but she never cut deep enough to be in any danger. As for the bruising, it looks nothing like anything from any fight I’ve ever dealt with. If someone attacks you and causes that much bruising it doesn’t take your son to wake you up. Even the worst DV violence I’ve witnessed where the woman was beat badly and tossed around had finger impressions and bruising where she was hit and hit things but nothing under the arms like that. Nothing matches up with her story.
I agree with you 100%. Trauma nurse of 15 years here, in the 1990’s trauma treatment guidelines indicated that anyone with a penetrating trauma to that zone (upper chest) required surgical exploration of the wound regardless of the depth or size. Her vitals are noted as stable. The wound is clearly superficial. It required no repair or even sutures to close it. I am sure the procedure took all of five minutes, minus surgical prep and anesthesia time. Thankfully the guidelines have changed. We now have better imaging and no longer have to subject patients to the risk of general anesthesia without a clear indication (arterial injury on imaging, hypotension, low or dropping hemoglobin/hematocrit or urine output, severe pain etc.) had this happened today or even 10 years ago, she would have never gone to surgery without one of those indications.
A claim I frequently see is “only 2mm from her carotid artery”. The carotid artery is huge and easy to nick with a wound to the upper chest, had it actually been incised in the same manner the skin was incised it is my opinion it would have required holding pressure for a few minutes as I do not believe it would have caused any arterial damage or pseudoaneurysm that would have endangered her life.
I have also seen the claim that “her necklace required surgical removal” I haven’t seen anything presented in the evidence that proves the necklace was embedded in the wound. If this were in fact true the defense could have presented the operative notes proving that or even the bill as it would have been included in the diagnosis and procedure codes. It is very possible the necklace may have been adhered to the chest or the wound due to dried blood and the medical personnel left it in place knowing she would be undergoing a wound exploration under anesthesia.
I have also seen the claim that her having been admitted to the ICU is proof she was seriously injured. In every hospital I have worked in it was very common to admit patients involved in horrific circumstances to ICU for a few reasons:
1. ICU units are usually entry limited so harder for journalists and busy bodies to enter.
2. They are almost always private (double rooms were common in the 90’s, except in ICU’s.) and usually larger than regular hospital rooms with extra chairs and what we called “grieving carts” with coffee, water, soda, and small snacks available so they were more comfortable and private for police to question patients involved in crimes and better for anxious and grieving family members to gather in.
3. The much smaller nurse to patient ratio allows for nursing staff to spend a lot more time than they would be able to on a general floor. Common ratios in the 90’s at night for ICU 1-2 vs Floor 1-7 or even 1-9 in some hospitals (not much better today btw). In short admission to ICU is often extended as a courtesy to patients involved in horrific circumstances. The hope being they could spend their entire stay there but if the bed was needed by an actual critical patient we would just move them out then.
I can say that in all my years in ER and ICU in an inner city level 1 trauma center I have never seen defensive wounds that looked like hers. Nor have I ever seen two victims from the same crime with such stark differences in their wounds unless more than one perpetrator was involved. Years ago I came across pictures of the boys on Darlie’s site. If you compare Darlies wounds to her son Damon’s wounds the difference is astounding. If you compare her wounds to defensive wounds in survivors or wound forensics in general the differences are astounding. ** Warning: I would not advise anyone to go looking for any of the above as the images are extremely graphic and upsetting (especially of Damon). **
I do not know if Darlie is guilty. My brain tells me yes absolutely she is. My heart does not want to believe a mother could ever do that to her children. I will say that I believe the wound evidence does not support her story.
As a longtime lurker on this site I would like to say thank you in advance to anyone willing to read and consider my opinions.