Foreword This book unveils the harsh reality of hidden abuses that children encoun- ter and also takes us along on the mission of a new breed of amazing men and women who have dedicated their careers to detecting and protecting these most vulnerable members of our society. As a third year medical student in 1969, I walked into a Grand Rounds Conference at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children being given by a pediatrician named Dr. Ray Helfer. That talk would change my life. It was a presentation about child abuse, which was, at the time, not widely rec- ognized by either medicine or the wider public. I was captivated. I wanted to know more, but information on the topic was scarce. Years later, I was a pediatric resident at the Children’s Hospital National Medical Center in Washington, DC. There, child abuse became reality to me in the emergency room, clinic, and inpatient service. It was no longer theoretical. It was real, sometimes even a life and death issue. Working with fellow residents, social workers, nurses, and faculty, we started a child abuse team in 1971 to better care for the scores of abused and neglected children we saw each year. Later, at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, I continued my care of abused children, on an intense quest to learn more about the how and why of this abuse and neglect, and what could help protect these children. As time passed, I learned a great deal about abuse. I worked with almost every specialty and subspecialty group of physicians, nurses, social workers, community workers, child protective service workers, police, lawyers, judges, and parents. What was once the mystery of child abuse became clearer, although no less sad. I helped train some younger colleagues who have now become career specialists in the care of abused and neglected children, some of whom have gone on to especially distin- guished careers and are contributors to this book. During those years,
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