Tess Sullivan

Tess Sullivan is the daughter of Marilyn Sullivan, who was abusing her.

History
Tess came into the practice with a broken wrist. She said that she missed the curb while walking home. Cooper noticed a bruise on her arm that looked like someone had grabbed her and asked her about it. She denied anything having happened.

Cooper looked into her medical records and found a spiral humerus fracture from before she was his patient, along with several other breaks. When Violet said that when a child was being abused, the most likely culprit was the adult in the house. Cooper then sadly resigned himself to calling CPS on Tess's mother, who had multiple sclerosis. Cooper went to Sam with his concerns and Sam refused to believe that Marilyn could be hurting Tess. He said Cooper needed to be sure before making the call. Cooper struggled, but ultimately made the call to CPS.

Tess and her mother returned to the practice enraged because a social worker had come to their home. Marilyn and Tess said that Tess had helped her when she fell and that's how her arm got broken, though Cooper didn't believe them because they would have been forthcoming with that story if it were true.

A hearing was scheduled to determined if the concerns were founded. Before the hearing, Tess came to Cooper and asked what he'd say. He said he'd tell her if she rolled up her sleeves. Tess said her mom hits her, but it's okay because she's in pain and needs to take it out on someone. Cooper said it wasn't okay for her to take it out on Tess. During the hearing, Cooper reported on the injuries he'd observed on Tess. He said that her injuries could have only happened in an abusive situation. He then went on to say that Tess was strong, but even the strongest kid shouldn't have to take the kind of abuse Tess was going through. Once you do that, you're not a kid anymore. The judge ruled that Tess would be removed from Marilyn's custody.

Familial
Tess was being raised alone by her mother, who had multiple sclerosis and took her pain out on her daughter by repeatedly injuring her.