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'Maybe tomorrow'
27/03/2008 14:50 - (SA)
Roxana Hegeman
Wichita, Kansas - A woman who spent nearly two years in a bathroom, sitting on the toilet so long that the seat adhered to sores on her body, remains hospitalised and in pain from medical procedures, according to family members.
The woman's boyfriend, Kory McFarren, 37, called his local sheriff's office in Kansas in late February to say something was wrong with his girlfriend. Authorities who arrived at the home were astounded to find Pam Babcock, 35, stuck to the toilet, which they believe she had sat on for about a month.
Since then, relatives said, family members have not been allowed to visit Babcock at the hospital. Her aunt, Pat Bollinger, the family's designated spokesperson, is the only relative allowed to call her but must use a password just to talk to her niece on the phone, and the family knows little about her medical condition. Babcock spends much of her time sleeping at the hospital's intensive care unit, they said.
Bollinger said she calls the hospital daily and is told only now that Babcock is the same. She asks every day to talk to her, but Babcock has only agreed to speak once for about 10 minutes.
Has not spoken about it
During that one call, Babcock spoke little and mostly listened as Bollinger recounted happy family memories - time spent swimming, camping and boating - from the year Babcock lived with them in Arizona when she was about 10 years old.
Babcock has not spoken about her bathroom ordeal, she said.
"I didn't bring up anything," Bollinger said. "I just let her know how much I loved her and cared for her."
Bollinger sent her niece flowers and a willow tree angel to watch over her at the hospital. She is also now making a scrapbook for Babcock with pictures of her as a child.
"She is in a lot of pain and she is going to have to go through a lot to even try to have a normal life again," said Carmen McNamara, Babcock's cousin. "She is having all kinds of procedures. Right now, she is in the safest place she has been in 15 years."
'She is a very sick girl'
The boyfriend, McFarren, has been charged with a misdemeanour count of mistreatment of a dependent adult. He has said doctors told him Babcock suffered nerve damage and is unable to walk.
"Her wounds are still serious. ... She is not out of the woods by any means. She is a very sick girl," Bollinger said.
Via Christi hospital officials refused to give an update on the woman's condition.
Relatives tried many times to contact Babcock during the 16 years she lived with her boyfriend, McNamara said. They had limited contact the first year, but have not been able to see her during the last 15 years.
She blamed McFarren for Babcock's refusal to see her relatives. McFarren has said in the past that it was Babcock's choice not to see her family.
Sheriff sent to house
About three or four years ago, worried relatives sent the sheriff to their house to check on her welfare, Bollinger said.
"She was still on her feet," Bollinger said. "When the deputy came back he did say he got to talk to her. But she was very upset with me that I had sent the sheriff - but I also note her boyfriend was there when she called me back."
Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple could not be reached for comment on whether his department had any record of officers doing a welfare check on the woman.
McFarren told authorities that Babcock feared leaving the bathroom and may not have left it in two years, although he said he was unsure how long exactly she was in there. He said that he took her food and water daily, and that he repeatedly asked her to come out but that she usually replied "maybe tomorrow".
"The only thing I am guilty of is I didn't get her help sooner," McFarren told The Associated Press earlier this month. He could not be reached for comment.
"We tried many times to contact her - to let her know we loved her, to send her clothes, to send her presents - but we didn't hound her," McNamara said. "She is an adult and she isn't mentally retarded or slow."
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