I had never heard of the term Resignation Syndrome until very recently. But when I came face to face with a child suffering from Resignation Syndrome, I recognized it immediately from something I encountered many times in the past. Currently it is impacting mainly refugee children. It was first recognized as a medical condition in Sweden, impacting children of refugees whose families were turned down for asylum.
What commonly happens is when the family and child hear this news, the child starts to shut down psychologically thinking Life is hopeless since they will be forced to return to the terrible conditions they just left. In the face of this trauma, the child takes to bed abandoning food and drink and entering a catatonic state where even painful stimuli do not arouse them. This is obviously a very serious medical condition as the child needs feeding tubes and saline drips to stay alive.
What brought this medical condition to the forefront of my mind was the ex-Honduran family that has worked at our home since 1994. As I have mentioned in the past, some members of this family are Green Card holders, some U.S. citizens, some illegal and one 9 year girl who is a “dreamer”. This is pretty typical of extended immigrant families as it takes years to work through all the ins and outs of our immigration system. She has been in the U.S since she was 2 years old.
The girl, Dimily, has been under enormous stress since her father was deported and she started hating going to school as kids made fun of her because of her accent using English. Two weeks ago she entered the “Resignation Syndrome” state. She has been hospitalized and I have made a deal with the hospital to supplement their Medicaid payments so she gets first class health care.
Doctors do not understand this kind of vegetative state and what to do about it other than keep the child alive until some kind of cure materializes. Apparently, in this state, the child is somewhat cognizant of what is going on around them because there have been cases of spontaneous recovery when the family’s immigration status has turned positive. Temporarily, Dimily’s immigration status is on hold because even the ICE is not going to deport a very sick little girl or her mother.
This brings me back to where I encountered the Resignation Syndrome in the past – the polio epidemic years. Seeing many polio children give up on Life when there seemed to be no hope. To many polio children, they could not imagine a life that would be okay and not a huge burden to their family. Faced with this kind of bleak prospect for a future, many children just gave up. I remember watching doctors and nurses hooking these polio kids up to feeding tubes and watching as they used a needle to poke various parts of the child’s body. I felt the ouch just watching but these kids had absolutely no reaction. The doctors would shake their heads and you knew, even without words, the doctors had also given up hope.
These polio children were put on a death watch, it usually took 6 months or more of living without stimuli for the child to die. G-d gave me a 6th sense of knowing when this moment would arrive and call me to their bed to hold their hand in passing. As a child it was almost the 11th commandment – no one should die alone.
Children are normally quite resilient but as I have come to find out the immigration system with it’s fears and confusion would test the strength of even the strongest among us. This more than even children can endure. Immigration reform is absolutely critical to the well-being of hundreds of thousands of kids today. Google Resignation Syndrome for more information. I will do everything in my power to make Dimily survive this crisis and lead whatever life G-d can provide this little girl. After almost 60 years since I had to hold some child’s hand while they died, I absolutely refuse to allow this to happen to Dimily.