Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 3035

Tonight's special guest is Laurie Purcell from Bay Shore, New York, a returning NAASCA family member from Long Island. Her abuse was severe .. physical, sexual and emotional.  She says, "I was born into a family of severely mentally ill people, who weren't medicated." Jack, her father, was a violent pedophile. Gilda, her mother, was psychotic and violent to Laurie and her brother, Andrew, was brain damaged. "At 4 yrs old my brother threw me out his second story bedroom window. Gilda brought me into the house where she beat me with her fists on my broken back. I never saw a doctor and shouldn't have survived. My rib cage was twisted taking my intestines with it. The back of my head was crushed." All her life she's had problems. The neglect she experienced is a large part of the reason she's lived most of her life in full leg braces. At 17 her bother crushed the front of her throat in an attempt to kill her. Other injuries she sustained were multiple damaged discs, broken ribs and a broken collarbone. She's had severe fibromyalgia since she was 17. "I blew the whistle on all of them when my niece was born into the house," she explains. "I had to protect her from Jack. Nobody believed me until I talked to Jack's sister. He had a pedophile history and I've been advocating for abused kids ever since." Laurie concludes, "We all have a purpose, even if we don't like it, and the bottom line is you don't have to repeat what was done to you. We're all broken, but we can be fixed to a certain degree. Nearly 65, my body is in shambles, but I chose to help rather than hurt."