Andrea Yates Essay

501 Words3 Pages
June 20 , 2001 Andrea Yates shocked a nation as news stations aired stories proclaiming that she had taken the lives of her five children .As details unfolded over the next few months and stories would surface that revealed Mrs . Yates had a long history of mental illness . Numerous people have admitted guilt , expressing their shame and apologies for assuming the children were safe . Opinions of many believe that Russell Yates simply looked the other way , allowing his wife to have control and ultimately end the lives of his children . His character was consistently scrutinized over the course of the trial , only to be defended by family members . Members of his family and those close to the family held fast to Mr . Yates following the instructions of the medical professionals involved with Andrea ‘s medical care . As most individuals rely on the medical professionals to provided health care instructions , Russell Yates did the same . His only fault was to trust the wrong doctor – psychiatrist Dr . Mohammad Saeed . Perhaps the most disastrous decision of Dr . Saeed took place on June 18 , 2001 . Two days prior to drowning her children Andrea Yates had visited Saeed and the doctor described her condition as “increasingly declining ‘ then sent her home . Russell Yates had no choice but to trust the doctor ‘s wisdom , after all Saeed was the professional trained to understand mental health (Cohen ) It might be said that this was just a slight mistake in judgment or that the doctor may have assumed that the situation at hand wasn ‘t that serious but as history revealed itself the world would find out that Dr . Saeed made a number of bad decisions in Yates ‘ case . In May , Yates was admitted to the Devereux Treatment Network in League City , Texas where she was under the treatment of Dr . Saeed . The charts dated specifically on the day of her release , May 14 , give
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