Judge: Wendrow family can continue its lawsuit over dismissed child abuse accusations -Michigan

By L.L. Brasier and John Wisely

An Oakland County family can continue its lawsuit against officials who took the children away and jailed the parents on charges of sexually assaulting their severely autistic daughter, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Julian and Thal Wendrow and their two teenage children are suing Oakland County, the Michigan Department of Human Services and Walled Lake Consolidated Schools in U.S. District Court.

Julian Wendrow was arrested in December 2007 and remained jailed for 80 days. Thal Wendrow was placed on an electronic tether, and their children were sent to foster care for months before prosecutors dropped the case in 2008.

The case against the Wendrows was based solely on statements their mute and autistic daughter, then 14, was said to have made using a widely debunked communication method called facilitated communication. The child's hands were guided by a trained aide using the method, but studies show it's the aide usually doing the typing.

The Wendrows filed suit in 2008. Many of the claims against prosecutors were dismissed because they are protected under governmental immunity.

Last year, the defendants asked that all the claims be dismissed. On Tuesday, Judge John Corbett O'Meara agreed to dismiss the parents' and brother's claims that they were treated unfairly because of their affiliation with the disabled girl. O'Meara concluded only the girl has standing to sue under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

O'Meara let stand a defamation claim against former Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca, who sought the criminal charges and then publicly said after he left office that the Wendrows were guilty even though the case was dropped.

Oakland County Corporation Counsel Judith Cunningham said Tuesday that most of the claims against the county were dismissed. "We are nudging toward victory," she said.

O'Meara scheduled a trial on the remaining claims for June.

Sarah Prescott, an attorney for the Wendrows, said she disagreed with the judge's decision to dismiss the family's disability claims but is happy the girl's claim can be presented to a jury.

"To say that she can go forward against all these defendants is the heart of the case," Prescott said. "The quicker we can get to the courthouse steps, the better."

In his ruling, O'Meara also let stand several claims against the Walled Lake school district, which first reported the allegations, because the facilitated communication occurred at the school where the autistic girl attended classes. According to depositions, school officials knew the communication method was suspect.

Lawyers for the district did not return a message seeking comment on Tuesday's ruling. The Michigan Attorney General's Office, which is defending the state social workers involved, declined to comment.

West Bloomfield and its police department, also named in the suit, settled with the family for $1.8 million in 2011.

O'Meara refused to dismiss a claim against a state worker who is accused of violating the Wendrow children's rights when she took the girl for a gynecological exam that found no evidence of abuse. The worker also drove the couple's 13-year-old son to the police station, where he was interrogated for two hours.

Source http://www.freep.com/article/20120328/NEWS03/203280380/Judge-Oakland-County-family-can-continue-its-lawsuit-over-dismissed-child-abuse-accusations?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cp

County agency reviewing practices on taking children - California

BY LOIS HENRY

Kern County is reviewing how its Child Protective Services agency removes children from their parents, according to Deputy County Counsel Mark Nations.

Until now, CPS has routinely taken children without warrants if the agency feels there is a credible allegation of "general neglect."

Law enforcement typically handles removal of children when severe physical or sexual abuse is alleged. General neglect is handled by CPS and runs the gamut from drugs being used in the home to no food available for the children.

On Wednesday, sources close to CPS said social workers this week had stopped taking children without warrants and were instead filing petitions asking the court to detain the children.

Nations confirmed that a review was under way but said he had no knowledge that any procedures had been changed thus far.

"Non-custody petitions (to the court) are not something new and whether they will receive increased use in the future remains to be seen," he said in an email.

The review of CPS procedures comes on the heels of a settlement offer in a federal lawsuit that was considered by the Board of Supervisors in closed session on Tuesday.

In that case, Darlene and Lawrence McCue allege CPS and the Kern County Sheriff's Department illegally took their son, then 7, from his school on March 6, 2008 without a warrant and with no evidence that he was being harmed.

The McCues were thought to be endangering their son by having him undergo unnecessary medical procedures for imagined or exaggerated conditions.

Kern County kept the child for four months before a juvenile dependency court found no evidence that supported his removal.

The McCues' attorney, Shawn McMillan, said the law is very clear that authorities must have a warrant to take a child unless they believe the child is in "imminent danger," which means they have reason to believe the child will suffer serious physical harm or death in the few hours it would take to get a warrant.

"There are no nuances," to the law, McMillan has said previously.

McMillan wouldn't say what the McCues' settlement offer involved, but did say there was no demand that CPS alter its procedures. However, he said he assumed that would happen as a result of the lawsuit.

Nations said Supervisors did consider the settlement offer Tuesday evening.

"It was more of an informational thing," he said. "Now, I need to move forward with what they instructed me to do, which I'm not at liberty to disclose."

Another portion of the McCues' lawsuit targets South Fork Union School District. McMillan expects that that part of the case will go to trial.

The McCues allege the school district gave their son a peanut butter cookie even though he's allergic to peanuts. They reported the district to the State Board of Education and believe the district then retaliated against them by filing false accusations with CPS, which resulted in the boy being taken by the county.

An attorney for the South Fork School District has said previously that school employees were simply answering questions from doctors and law enforcement.

Source http://www.bakersfield.com/news/columnist/henry/x2052758890/County-agency-reviewing-practices-on-taking-children

DHS misled level of child abuse in federal report

by: RANDY ELLIS, NOLAN CLAY & ROBBY TRAMMELL
Sunday, October 16, 2011
10/16/2011 7:17:13 AM

DHS officials greatly misrepresented to the public and their governing commission the number of children abused and neglected in out-of-home state custody, documents reveal.

Last December, the Oklahoma Department of Human Services issued a news release stating "99.8 percent of children in out-of-home care did not experience maltreatment while in care" during 2009.

The agency proclaimed Oklahoma was one of 24 states that met a national standard of having at least 99.68 percent of children in custody not experience confirmed abuse or neglect in out-of-home care.

The claims were false.

Source http://www.tulsaworld.com/site/printerfriendlystory.aspx?articleid=20111016_12_A1_DHSoff80925

More on this subject http://newsok.com/dhs-misrepresents-number-of-children-abused-and-neglected-in-state-custody/article/3613772?custom_click=pod_headline_usnational-news

Man Jailed For False Report Of Child Abuse

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A Jacksonville man was sentenced to 45 days in jail after being charged with making a false report of child abuse.

Timmy Riley will also have to pay several fines for his false reporting and has been advised not to make any false reports to the Department of Children and Families in violation of a previously entered injunction.

Riley was arrested by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. According to Florida state law, "a person who knowingly and willfully makes a false report, or who advises another to make a false report, is guilty of a felony of the third degree, punishable by up to five years imprisonment."

"Child safety is the first priority of the Florida Department of Children and Families," said DCF Interim Regional Managing Director Pattie Mallon. "We investigate allegations of abuse and neglect involving children, and we take our investigations very seriously. If we receive a report of serious abuse or neglect, our investigators must see the children within two hours. Our goal is to see all child victims within 24 hours of the first report of abuse. Because our goal is to be highly responsive, any false reports of abuse could prevent us from seeing real abuse victims quickly and giving them the protection they need. We salute the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office for their swift action to arrest this person who falsely reported abuse."

A false report is defined as a report of abuse, neglect or abandonment of a child to the central abuse hotline in which the report is maliciously made for the purpose of harassing, embarrassing or harming another person; personal financial gain for the reporting person; acquiring custody of a child; or personal benefit for the reporting person in any other private dispute involving a child.

This does not include a report made in good faith to the central abuse hotline. Florida law allows for an administrative fine for up to $10,000 for each report determined to be false.

False reports of child abuse are rare in the Jacksonville area, according to DCF. In Duval, Nassau and Clay counties, less than 1/10 of 1 percent of all abuse reports received in a 12-month period were verified to be false reports.

Source http://www.news4jax.com/news/29439438/detail.html

Sick Child's Parents Say Hospital & County Falsely Labeled Them as Child Abusers

By ERIN MCAULEY

HARRISBURG, Pa. (CN) - Parents say they lost custody of their children, were identified as child abusers and the father was jailed for more than a year because doctors and state officials falsely attributed their 4-month-old daughter's childhood stroke and congenital rickets to child abuse.

Jamel Billups and Jacqueline Rosario, who are black, sued the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Franklin County and its Office of Children, Youth and Families and a long list of individuals, in Federal Court.

The parents say that when their daughter, L.B., suffered a stroke and showed signs of rickets on Oct. 19, 2009, the Child Safety team at Penn State Hershey Medical Center falsely blamed her condition on child abuse, and the state then seized her and her 2-year-old brother, T.R., and sent them to foster homes.

The parents say L.B.'s abdominal CT scan and skeletal surveys revealed 16 rib fractures, but medical evidence that showed no related internal injuries proved these fractures were the result of "weak bones rather than abusive trauma."

They say that despite medical knowledge that Vitamin D deficiency can lead to rickets and weak bones in African Americans, Penn State's Child Safety Team failed to require that L.B.'s blood be tested for abnormal clotting factors or that the child's or mother's blood be tested for vitamin D deficiency.

They add that "no evidence of any injury to L.B.'s spine or any evidence of disruption of her spinal ligaments" was apparent after her stroke, and a report on an MRI exam stated that "thrombosis was a possible explanation."

The parents say, "It is well established in the medical literature that a thrombophilia workup should be performed looking for potential risk factors for clotting when thrombosis is possibility. No such thrombophilia workup was ordered to be performed in 2009 by L.B.'s treating physician or by any member of defendant Penn State's Child Safety Team."

The parents say the Franklin County Office of Children, Youth and Families "has a policy of relying upon doctors affiliated with the American Academy Pediatrics, whose opinions are tainted by a burden shifting medical presumption that the cause of any intracranial injury in a child under the age of one year is caused by abuse unless the parents provide an accidental explanation, to perform the medical investigation into whether injuries suspected to have been caused by child abuse were, in fact, caused by child abuse."

They claim that agents of the Office of Children, Youth and Families, defendants Tammie Lay and Dawn M. Watson, "failed to conduct their own independent non-presumption tainted investigation" and "relied exclusively upon the conclusion of defendant Penn State's Child Safety Team and defendants [Drs. Mark S.] Dias, [Kathryn R.] Crowell and [Arabinda K.] Choudhary that L.B.'s intracranial hemorrhages were caused by abuse on the afternoon of October 19, 2009 and rib fractures were caused by abuse 4 to 8 weeks prior to her hospitalization without conducting any independent medical review or confirmation of their own."

The complaint continues: "On October 21, 2009, eight days before Jamel was arrested, defendant [Lauren] Sulcove emailed defendant Dias to introduce herself as the prosecutor that would be handling the case against Jamel."

Sulcove, an assistant prosecutor, worked for defendant Franklin County District Attorney Matthew Fogel, according to the complaint, which continues: "On October 28, 2009, with reckless indifference to the truth and the Billups' family civil rights, defendant Crowell issued a report on Penn State letterhead falsely concluding that L.B.'s childhood stroke and 16 rib fractures without internal injuries were caused by abuse. Defendant Crowell's report stated that L.B. 'does not have any evidence of coagulopathy or bleeding disorder' and concluded that 16 anterior rib fractures without any associated internal injuries 'occurred as a previous incident of inflicted trauma' concluding that 'this is a clinical picture of inflicted trauma' of 'some event ... likely a short time before [L.B.] had difficulty breathing'." (Brackets and ellipsis in complaint.)

After the report was issued, Jamel Billups was charged with felony aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

The parents say: "As soon as Jamel learned of the issuance of the arrest warrant on the day it was issued, October 29, 2009, he immediately and voluntarily reported to the Chambersburg police station and was taken into custody. The court set a $200,000.00 straight bail for Jamel, a bail that the Billups' family could not post. Jamel's remained in jail from October 29, 2009 until December 17, 2010, when a jury acquitted Jamel of all criminal charges."

According to the complaint, "Penn State created a Child Safety Team on September 1, 2009 for the express purpose, inter alia, of investigating whether injuries reported as suspicious for child abuse were, in fact, caused by child abuse. Penn State has a discriminatory policy that lends the full faith and credit of Penn State to employees who testify for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in criminal prosecutions, for the Commonwealth's county child protection agencies in dependency proceedings and Childline expunction hearings but denies the same full faith and credit of the Penn State Hershey Medical Center to those employees who testify for the accused parents."

Penn State, according to the complaint, received "a 2.8 million dollar grant from the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) for educating parents about shaken baby syndrome."

Defendant Dr. Mark Dias, co-director of the Penn State Child Safety Team, is a neurosurgeon, a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and "holds himself out as an expert in child abuse who can determine whether an injury was caused by abuse and frequently testifies with the full faith and credit of Penn State for the prosecution in criminal cases," according to the complaint.

"In 2010, defendant Dias wrote a chapter of a book about child abuse entitled 'The Case for Shaking'." It was Defendant Dias' published efforts that enabled Penn State to receive the CDC 2.8 million dollar grant to 'educate' parents about shaken baby syndrome."

While Dias was never L.B.'s treating physician or surgeon, the parents say that Dias "attributed L.B.'s venous childhood stroke to a congenital anomaly (an anatomic impossibility) and with reckless indifference to the truth wrote a report rendering the false conclusion that L.B.'s injuries were caused by abuse on Penn State letterhead, testified at Jamel's criminal trial that defendant Dias was a professor at Penn State and, upon belief, was paid by, and enjoyed the liability insurance, of Penn State when he participated in the investigation of whether L.B.'s injuries were caused by abuse and testified at Jamel's criminal trial." (Parentheses in complaint.)

The parents add that Dr. Crowell, a member of the Penn State Child Safety Team, "qualified as an expert in child abuse for the first time in her life at the dependency hearing for L.B. and T.R on December 18, 2009. Defendant Crowell was qualified as an expert in child abuse for the second time in her life at Jamel's preliminary criminal hearing on December 28, 2009. Dr. Crowell acknowledged under oath at Jamel's criminal trial that she misrepresented medical evidence critical to L.B.'s case when she testified at Jamel's preliminary hearing."

Thirty paragraphs later, the parents say that Dr. Crowell "testified falsely that L.B. had 'an extensive screening' for 'coagulation problems' and 'an extensive screening for bleeding disorders' that were 'normal' and that L.B.'s 'metabolic workup was normal.'"

The parents add that Crowell testified, erroneously, that the child's rib injuries "were on the posterior side," but that "Contrary to Crowell's testimony, no Penn State radiologist ever reported that any of L.B.'s rib findings were posterior."

Rib injuries in true child abuse cases are "typically lateral or posterior," according to the complaint.

The complaint adds: "Posterior rib fractures have been considered by proponents of the shaken baby syndrome hypothesis as pathognomonic, or having a virtual 100 percent predictive diagnostic value, of the diagnosis of abuse in the medical literature. Whether L.B.'s rib fractures were located posterior, in the back near the spinal column, or anterior in the front, as was L.B.'s rib findings, has been considered by proponents of shaken baby syndrome as critical to making conclusion of child abuse."

The parents say that Crowell was also "paid by, and enjoyed the liability insurance, of Penn State" and was never their daughter's treating physician.

Defendant Dr. Arabinda Choudhary, another member of the Penn State Child Safety Team, "was not board certified by the American Board of Radiology nor does he possess any certificates of additional qualifications in pediatric radiology or neuro-radiology," according to the complaint. The parents say that Dr. Choudhary, "with reckless indifference to the truth, changed his initial diagnosis of L.B.'s venous stroke from possible thrombosis to the anatomically impossible diagnosis of a congenital/developmental anomaly."

Choudhary also was "paid by, and enjoyed the liability insurance, of Penn State" and was never their daughter's treating physician, the parents say.

The chairwoman of Penn State's Radiology Department, defendant Dr. Kathleen D. Eggli, "just before the scheduled criminal trial of Jamel ... implemented a new policy in the radiology department in which defendant Eggli selectively imposed restrictions on a Penn State radiologist who was sought out for a second opinion by the Billups family and rendered an opinion different than that of the Penn State Child Safety Team," the complaint states. "The restrictions imposed on this doctor who was willing to testify for the Billups family were not imposed on the Penn State radiologist who testified for the prosecution, defendant Choudhary, or on any other doctor at Penn State who testified for the prosecution. The restrictions included a prohibition on communicating the doctor's faculty appointment as an assistant professor of radiology at Penn State, denial of liability insurance from Penn State and a prohibition on the use of Penn State logo and letterhead, all prohibitions that were not applied to Defendants Dias, Crowell or Choudhary during their investigation and testimony on behalf of the prosecution and county children and youth agency."

The district attorney and assistant district attorney of Franklin County, Matthew Fogel and Lauren Sulcove, are also named as defendants. Sulcove is "sued solely in her role of investigating the false allegations of abuse prior to the arrest of Jamel." According to the complaint, "Pennsylvania law mandated that Defendant Fogel convene an investigative team upon the report of L.B.'s suspected abuse in October of 2009 to avoid duplication of fact-finding efforts with such team consisting of a minimum of a health care provider, county caseworker and law enforcement official. Defendant Sulcove led and/or was a member of the team and either followed the policy of the District Attorney's office to exclusively rely upon doctors affiliated with the American Academy of Pediatrics to make conclusions about whether suspected child abuse was, in fact, child abuse or defendant Sulcove individually failed to ensure that the investigation into allegations of abuse against Jamel was not tainted with the burden shifting medical presumption of doctors affiliated with the American Academy of Pediatrics."

Also sued is William C. Frisby Jr., an employee of the defendant Borough of Chambersburg. "Frisby was the detective assigned to investigate the allegations of abuse against Jamel and is sued solely in his role of investigating the allegations against Jamel. Defendant Frisby either followed the policy of defendant Chambersburg to rely upon doctors affiliated with the American Academy of Pediatrics for child abuse investigations or defendant Frisby individually failed to ensure that the investigation into allegations of abuse against Jamel was not tainted with the burden shifting medical presumption of doctors affiliated with the American Academy of Pediatrics."

The parents say that even after Jamel was acquitted of criminal charges, "FCCYS agents Kari Coccagna and Minnie Tuner threatened to immediately send the police to forcibly remove T.R. and L.B. from Jamel and Jackie if Jamel and Jackie did not agree to a 'voluntary' safety plan. The 'voluntary' safety plan required that Jamel 'agree' that he would not be alone with his children and required Jackie and Jamel to 'agree' to unannounced visits from employees of defendant FCCYS or suffer the immediate removal of their children from their care by the police. At all times relevant to this complaint, defendant Franklin County and defendant FCCYS had a policy of using safety plans as voluntary placement agreements and extending those agreements beyond 30 days in violation of 55 Pa. Code §3130.65. Defendants Franklin County, FCCYS, Coccagna and Tuner extended the voluntary placement agreement beyond 30 days without obtaining a court order in violation of Pennsylvania law and Jamel's and Jackie's right to due process pursuant to Franklin County and FCCYS policy or, in the alternative, defendants Coccagna and Watson violated the due process protection provided in 55 Pa. Code §3130.65 and failed to obtain a court order to extend the 'voluntary' safety plan beyond 30 days on their own."

The parents add: "On June 18, 2011, FCCYS closed its case with the Billups family and terminated the 'voluntary' safety plan."

The parents and their children seek punitive damages for reckless indifference to civil rights, due process violations, negligence, failure to train, extending voluntary placement agreements beyond 30 days, unconstitutionally favoring expert witnesses for the prosecution and disadvantaging expert witnesses for the defendants, and for the 414 days that Jamel was jailed for a crime he did not commit.

They are represented by Mark Freeman of Media, Pa.

Source http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/10/03/40229.htm

Fractured Leg, Fractured Family: A Misdiagnosis Leads to Allegations of Child Abuse

Written by: Ryan Schill on Oct 3, 2011

When Anthony Richards, Jr., was born on an early Sunday morning in June, the only complications involved his family getting the cameras in focus to capture his arrival into the world. He was a healthy baby and his parents, Queenyona Boyd and Anthony Richards, Sr., couldn’t have been happier. Yet, only four days later Anthony was put in foster care after doctors discovered an unexplained broken femur, his distraught parents the suspects of child abuse.

A Protective Father’s Discovery

After the hospital discharged Boyd and her baby boy, Richards took the two straight home later that Sunday. The following day, Boyd slipped out to pick up her prescriptions at a pharmacy only a short drive away. She wasn’t gone long when she received a phone call from her husband. Something was wrong with Anthony.

Although Boyd had a daughter already, Richards was a first-time dad. And like many first-time dads he was protective to a fault and he worried, maybe a little too much. So when he found a lump on Anthony’s leg while changing a diaper, he grew concerned.

“Did you notice his leg has some swelling?” he asked Boyd.

“Is it where he got the hepatitis B vaccine?” she asked. Richards said it was. Boyd wasn’t worried. Swelling around inoculations is normal, she thought. But she came home just in case.

Her husband wasn’t convinced the swelling was from the vaccine so he called his sister, a nurse. She told them to put warm compresses on the leg and massage the swollen area. Baby Anthony never cried while his parents followed the nurse’s advice. He even fell asleep.

Anthony was due for his three-day check-up with the pediatrician on Wednesday, but his parents moved it up to Tuesday as a precaution. The swelling was still present despite their efforts.

At the check-up, the pediatrician gave Anthony a clean bill of health. The only problem he saw was the swelling on the baby’s leg. He referred them to the emergency room at Children’s Health Care of Atlanta’s (CHOA) Egleston hospital in metro Atlanta. (A spokesperson for CHOA declined to comment for this story citing patient privacy concerns.)

In the ER, the doctor looked Anthony over and said that he thought the swelling could be a result of the hepatitis B injection missing the muscle. Swelling like Anthony had is not uncommon if the injection is mistakenly delivered subcutaneously. The doctor ordered X-rays and an ultrasound to be sure. Through it all, Anthony didn’t cry except when they were changing his diaper and Boyd suspected this was because Anthony had been circumcised Sunday.

First, they X-rayed Anthony’s leg. While the images were developing they took Anthony for the ultrasound, but just before they were to begin, the X-ray technician rushed into the room.

“Stop the ultrasound,” she said. “There’s a break.”

That’s when everything changed for Anthony’s parents.

The Science of Misdiagnosis of Child Abuse

In a recent report, the federal Administration on Children, Youth and Families estimated that 702,000 children were victims of maltreatment in 2009. That’s the equivalent of nine abused children for every 1000 in the population. But the report also says that only one in five investigations of abuse are substantiated. The rest, 80 percent, are cases in which the children are “found to be non-victims of maltreatment.”

What is not counted in the study is the number of investigations leading to deprivation (the state taking the child from the parents and placing them in foster care) before the parents are ultimately cleared of abuse. No one knows how many incidences of misdiagnosis occur each year. But one Child Welfare Law Specialist from Atlanta, Diana Rugh Johnson (who would eventually represent Boyd and Anthony) says she has brought six cases of misdiagnosis to trial in the last two years.

“Once a child abuse expert says there has been child abuse, that’s not the end of the investigation,” she said. “It’s the beginning.”

Experts must determine whether an injury is the result of trauma or was accidental or natural. But once a child abuse expert makes a determination of abuse, says Dr. Julie Mack, professor of radiology at Hershey Medical Center in Pennsylvania, it becomes very difficult to change the tenor of the conversation.

“The problem,” Mack wrote in an email, “is with the assumption of trauma — it becomes the default diagnosis, the one that is assumed as most likely. This is a dangerous assumption for the patient (who may have an underlying medical disease) and for the parents (who will appropriately deny trauma if none existent).”

In her cases, Johnson has found the same thing. She relies on out-of-state medical experts because she often cannot find a doctor locally who would publicly disagree with CHOA’s child abuse expert.

“Once [the child abuse expert] says it’s child abuse, everyone else shuts up,” she wrote.

But in infants especially, Mack wrote, “it is not appropriate to assume trauma is the most likely diagnosis, particularly in the absence of outward evidence of trauma.” Although, she adds, no physician she knows believes child abuse is not a reality. “Children are abused by their parents,” she wrote. Because of that, it is important to work hard to find the correct diagnosis.

“Fractures in the absence of history of significant trauma,” she wrote, “are also a characteristic feature of fractures caused by bone diseases such as osteogenesis imperfecta, bone disease of prematurity, and bone disease associated with vitamin deficiencies (rickets).”

Often cited as a contributing factor is rickets, a disorder that causes weak or soft bones. Rickets is often caused by a deficiency of vitamin D and in many cases a vitamin D deficiency in the mother will lead to the same deficiency in their newborn. But vitamin D deficiency may be hard to diagnose.

In a commentary in the journal Pediatrics, Dr. Colin Patterson of the University of Dundee, Scotland, writes that one difficulty in the diagnosis of vitamin D deficiency, “is that the radiologic signs may be absent or unimpressive in cases of children with biochemically severe deficiency, which is particularly true of infants younger than one year.”

The conundrum, Mack says, occurs in an infant with fractures. “If a child presents with multiple fractures, but no clinical history or signs of trauma, ‘hidden’ (abusive) forceful trauma is often assumed,” she said. “The logic used is ‘abuse is present because the parents have failed to explain the fractures.’”

Queenyana Boyd struggled with a vitamin D deficiency throughout her pregnancy with Anthony.

“Are you here to take my child away?”

Boyd and Richards were in shock. How could Anthony’s leg be broken? You must have the wrong family, they told the X-ray tech. They had brought the newborn to the hospital because of complications from a vaccination. But the tech confirmed their details. It was true; Anthony had a broken leg.

When Boyd and her husband returned to their room in the ER, the doctor and a social worker met them. The doctor spoke first.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I should have asked you if you could have dropped Anthony or if he could have fallen.”

Absolutely not, Boyd and Richards told him. The social worker spoke up wanting to know what happened, so Boyd told them both the story, from the moment her husband discovered the swelling to when they arrived at the ER.

Richards’ eyes were tearing up. “Are you here to take my child away?” he asked the social worker. Boyd refused to believe that. They’d done nothing wrong.

“Well,” the social worker said, “we’re going to have to admit him to the hospital and do further tests.”

No one took their son that day. In fact, Boyd and Richards were allowed to stay in the hospital with Anthony, often alone in their room with the door closed, while Anthony was breastfed.

A caseworker from Georgia’s Child Protective Services (CPS) arrived later that day and began interviewing Anthony’s family. He spoke with Boyd and Richards, Boyd’s 7-year-old daughter Anya, Boyd’s sister and Richards’ mother, who had flown in after the birth. He also interviewed the nurses who had treated Anthony in the hospital. No one had a negative thing to say. The caseworker even told Boyd that her Anya was very happy and showed no signs of abuse. (Repeated calls to CPS were not returned.)

Boyd then asked the caseworker to contact Anthony’s pediatrician. She was told he would get to that later. He then explained to Boyd and Richards they needed to meet with a representative from the hospital’s child protection division. In the meantime, doctors continued to run tests on baby Anthony.

The next morning, the couple arrived for the interview with the child protection division. Once again they told the story of finding the swollen leg and how they had wound up in an interview with protective services. The representative said that she saw no indications of abuse; the break looked like “one of those things that happens.” Boyd agreed. She was also struggling to pinpoint when or how the leg could have broken.

Following the interview, a doctor from the child protection division spent a few minutes examining Anthony. He told the parents that Anthony appeared to be completely healthy, save for the broken leg.

Boyd and Richards were beginning to feel a little relief. They felt that if the hospital or CPS truly suspected abuse they would have contacted the police by now. At this point, it had been more than a day since the break was discovered. Boyd and Richards had been left alone with Anthony on multiple occasions. No one involved in the case had indicated seeing any signs of abuse. But as the day wore on, the couple began to worry. Although it was true no one had said their case looked like abuse, no one had told them they were cleared either. The pair repeatedly called the CPS caseworker asking for information but they never received any.

That evening, the CPS caseworker walked into their hospital room with a security officer. “I’m sorry,” he said, “but I have to take your son into custody.”

With those words Boyd felt the air go out of her. “Why?” she managed to ask. “Why are you taking our son?”

The caseworker explained that the report from the child protection division doctor who had examined Anthony concluded the break was non-accidental and to investigate possible child abuse.

“There’s nothing we can do,” he told her.

Boyd pleaded with the caseworker, asking if her sister could take Anthony rather than placing him in foster care. She was told that was impossible. He had no choice but to put Anthony in foster care. As CPS took her son away, Boyd felt like Anthony was being kidnapped. She had no idea where her son was — CPS wouldn’t tell her — and she had no way of continuing to breastfeed him. Boyd wouldn’t learn where her child was for five more days.

How Big a Problem?

Misdiagnosis of child abuse occurs, especially in infants. It is the word of the parents against the medical opinion of the doctor who examines the child. But is it a growing problem?

“I think it has been a problem since the 1990s or maybe a little earlier -– we just didn’t know it,” Seattle attorney Heather Kirkwood said. “In the past decade, it has begun to spiral, I think . . . one of those pendulums that swings too far and is due for correction. [The same thing] happened in antitrust, too, just not with such disastrous consequences. Here, I suspect that we are looking at hundreds to thousands of destroyed families and falsely imprisoned parents and caretakers.”

Kirkwood has handled a number of high profile cases of misdiagnosed child abuse. Her cases have been written about in The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune. Others were featured on the PBS documentary series, Frontline, as well as on NPR and ProPublica.

According to Kirkwood, many misdiagnoses originate “simply because we don’t know (or in some cases have forgotten) how to diagnose vitamin D deficiency (rickets), vitamin C deficiency (scurvy), etc.”

“Often the key to the diagnosis,” she said, “is that the child has no bruises, no pain and the ‘fractures’ are self-curing — with good nutrition, the bones will develop normally without any other intervention. Not, in short, your typical fracture picture.”

The first step for Kirkwood when investigating is to do a retrospective diagnosis.

“In that stage,” she said, “I work with experts and read the literature to see how the medical findings fit together, both within the disciplines and with the clinical history. Sometimes it takes quite a few tries before we begin to put the entire picture together.”

Over time, in what is an evolving process, she has learned what to look for.

“When I first began to review cases,” she said, “I assumed that one fracture might be accidental but that multiple fractures without a major accident must be abusive.”

As she examined more cases, however, she began to conclude “that in cases in which the baby has no bruises or signs of abuse and otherwise seems well cared for, the opposite is true: the more fractures there are, the more likely it is that we are looking at some type of metabolic bone disease.”

And rickets often leads to fractures. Patterson, in his commentary in Pediatrics, writes, “In a recent retrospective study, fractures were found in seven of 40 children younger than 24 months with overt radiologic evidence of rickets.”

A Mother’s anguish

It was Wednesday evening. Boyd’s son had been placed in foster care earlier in the day. She was distraught and couldn’t understand why CPS wouldn’t let Anthony go with a family member. She called her aunt who had been in the delivery room when Anthony was born.

She was feeling hysterical and needed to talk to someone she trusted who would calm her down. While on the phone, her aunt began flipping through the pictures she’d taken at the delivery. And that’s when — in the middle of the conversation — Boyd’s aunt made a startling discovery that would further alter the course of events.

“I’m going to send you a picture,” her aunt said. “Did you see your son’s leg?”

Boyd’s aunt immediately emailed the camera phone picture to her. Boyd looked at the photograph, taken moments after delivery before the umbilical cord was cut; Anthony’s leg was already swollen in the photo. Boyd searched her own pictures for a higher resolution picture and found another that showed Anthony’s leg was swollen at birth. She discovered a picture on her camera taken at nearly the same moment as her aunt’s picture. It two appeared to show swelling on Anthony’s leg.

If the leg was broken before Boyd had even held her baby — and the swollen leg in the photos would seem to indicate that — CPS had no case. This was all the evidence she needed, Boyd thought. She emailed the photos to CPS the same night and asked that they be shown to the doctor at the child protective division at CHOA hospital. She never heard back.

Outraged at CPS for not communicating with her and impatient for the first hearing Monday (delayed until after the weekend because of a state furlough day on Friday), Boyd enlisted the help of Johnson. When shown the photos from the delivery, Johnson was astonished.

“The leg looked completely messed up,” she said later.

A mandatory “72-hour” hearing was held Monday to determine if further foster care was necessary for Anthony. The judge granted Boyd and Richards’ daily visitation rights with their son. They could spend three hours a day with him, but they weren’t allowed to bring him home yet. The judge scheduled an ad judicatory hearing for nearly three weeks later.

Adjudication is similar to a trial, but the judge makes the final ruling without a jury’s involvement. In this case, the judge would decide if the allegations of child abuse were true. The hearing lasted five hours. The prosecutor argued that Anthony must have been abused, as there was no other explanation for the broken femur. Both the CHOA hospital child protective division doctor and the obstetrician from Anthony’s delivery testified that the kind of break that Anthony had could not have happened at delivery. They were too rare.

Johnson brought in Dr. Julie Mack, a medical expert from Lancaster, Pa., who countered that claim. Mack had research that showed numerous similar cases. In nearly every one, the break wasn’t diagnosed until days later, even if the baby never left the hospital. She also compared the photos from the delivery with Anthony’s X-rays, showing that the swollen area in the picture was where the break was in the X-ray.

The judge ruled for Boyd and Richards. Anthony could finally come home with his parents.

While she is overjoyed to have her son back, the experience has left Boyd scared and upset. She worries every time she has to take Anthony to the pediatrician. She’d done nothing wrong when she took Anthony in with the swollen leg. In fact, she did everything right. But CPS took her child anyway. Boyd felt as if she were guilty until proven innocent. Until CPS said otherwise, she was an abusive parent.

Anthony was later diagnosed with a vitamin D deficiency, likely inherited from his mother. However, he was never tested during the abuse investigation and has not, to date, been diagnosed with rickets.

Source http://jjie.org/fractured-leg-fractured-family-misdiagnosis-leads-allegations-of-abuse/43001/2

Texas Child Wins Protection From State Child Welfare Agency

Texas court is sending an urgent message to child protective services agencies across the country: Stop harming children in the name of "protecting" them, according to a national child advocacy organization.

The National Coalition for Child Protection Reform responded Thursday to a decision by a court in Texas ordering the Texas Child Protective Services agency to stay away from a 14-year-old girl.

Such "orders of protection" are common in domestic violence cases. "But we've never heard of such an order protecting a child from a child welfare agency – until now," said NCCPR Executive Director Richard Wexler.

In the Texas case, according to KHOU-TV, a 14-year-old was taken after allegations of neglect, apparently as a result of a misunderstanding. After 18 months during which she was repeatedly abused in a group home, she couldn't take it anymore and ran away. According to the family's lawyer, the caseworker then said something that speaks volumes about whether the child ever needed to be taken:

"The case worker called [her] mom and said she ran away, but you find her, you can keep her," attorney Julie Ketterman told KHOU.

The mother did find her daughter. Then Ketterman went to court and won the family that order of protection. The court ruled that "[CPS] engaged in conduct constituting family violence and good cause exists for issuance of a protective order...in the best interest of the child."

"Sadly the only thing unusual about this case is the outcome," said Wexler. "Tens of thousands of times every year, all across America, children are needlessly taken from everyone they know and love. The emotional trauma is, in itself, devastating. But several studies have found abuse in one-quarter to one-third of foster homes and the record of group homes and institutions is even worse.

"All those cases of children wrongfully removed overload CPS agencies, so workers have less time to find children in real danger who really do need to be taken from their parents.

"We congratulate this family for its courage and we congratulate their lawyer, Ms. Ketterman, for finding an innovative way to protect her client – and send a message across the country," Wexler said.

SOURCE National Coalition for Child Protection Reform

Utah CPS database has false allegations & foster histories - Central Registry

From our experience and what others have told us, all states have a Central Registry and all kinds of reports are kept there. Even some that are 30 - 40 years old or more.

Note from video creator:

Utah's Department of Social Services has a database all allegations of child abuse and neglect are kept in. It's called SAFE and it is a form of SACWIS. Although this spokesperson claims the money is not in to link into the other states as of yet, she does admit they keep record of anonymous allegations that the accused may not even hear about, ever. Also, to boot, an individual's foster care record is kept in this system.

Why else could they possibly keep someone's foster care record in the system used to pull information from to take custody of an individual's children? Some would ask the same of unfounded accusations.

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