https://madamenoire.com/1119892/georgia-mother-left-son-in-the-hospital/

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Most of us have the base level knowledge that being a parent is not easy. Compound that reality with the lack of a support system, limited resources and trying to navigate raising a child with special needs and all of it can be overwhelming.

That’s the word Diana Elliott used to describe her feelings after authorities discovered that she abandoned her 14-year-old son at the Grady Memorial Hospital.

According to the Washington Post, on December 4, in Atlanta, Georgia, 37-year-old Elliott drove to the hospital with her nonverbal son in tow. Elliott wandered the halls of the hospital with the boy without checking in or altering the staff for an hour. Eventually, Elliott and her son walked outside together. But she pulled off in a red minivan.

Later, a nurse on her break discovered the boy outside. He was disoriented, cold and hungry. Elliott’s son had a bag containing a few items but nothing that could identify him and he wasn’t able to communicate with officers.

Police officers asked the community for tips about the boy’s identity and after five days they were able to link him back to Elliott. When they located her, she was staying in a hotel with her three other children. She told police that she left her son at the hospital because she was overwhelmed.

Lt. Jeff Baxter told The Post, “She indicated that there were a lot of things going on in her life that were making it hard for her to support her family. She just kind of felt like she could no longer care for her kids.”

While Baxter acknowledged that the whole situation was sad, he said that Elliott’s decision to leave her son alone without notifying the staff ultimately resulted in a charge of child cruelty.

Elliott was released on Thursday afternoon when an Atlanta judge granted her bond, allowing her to leave with just her signature. When other women heard about Elliott’s story, they came to the courtroom as a sign of solidarity and support.

Kaitlyn Ross, of WXIA, the local NBC affiliate, wrote in a Facebook status that when Elliott turned around and saw the women, she gasped.

“She had never met any one of these women and started crying when she realized they were there to support her.

Ana Maria Brannan, an associated professor of special education at Indiana University at Bloomington, suggested that Elliott might have left her son at the hospital because she thought it was a safe place for him and she didn’t know where else to take him.

Don McNeil, the father of two adult children with special needs told The Post, “You cannot judge somebody who’s found themselves at a breaking pitch like that.”

His wife Julie offered, “When you have a child with disabilities, your support system gets so narrow there’s hardly anyone you can pick up and say, ‘What do you do when they bang their heads against the wall?’”

Elliott’s son is still under the care of the Grady Memorial Hospital. Her other three children have been evaluated by the Georgia Department of Family and Children’s Services.