Bone disease mistaken as child abuse; family is torn apart by CPS

Koharuchan

http://gma.yahoo.com/rare-disease-mi...ws-health.html

This was such a sad story. I couldn't believe the part about how "The baby turned her head away from her parents several times and authorities interpreted that as confirmation of abuse." This is a BABY. An infant turning her head from her parents means they abused her? Seriously? This all could have been avoided, and I find this very sad.

Kate*

It is sad, but this disease is often mistaken for abuse. The murder-suicide situation probably didn't help matters, even if it occured as a result of the child being taken. There is one tell-tale sign of this disorder, the whites of their eyes are always blue instead of white.

Bubbles. ♥

This is so sad.... this is absolutely horrible.

LiveLongAndProsper

Children in these situations should be checked for these kinds of illnesses before the conclusion is settled at child abuse. The system is in place to protect the child, but in cases like this all it has done is ripped apart her family. Over something that could have been sorted. Stories like these make me so angry.

Fictional

I'd just like to point out that everyone would be just as upset if the headline was "child abuse mistaken as bone disease; family is turned away by CPS", so whatever child protection do, they're always going to be portrayed as the bad guys. Also, social workers aren't doctors, so if they are told by a doctor "this child has 11 broken bones, we think it's the result of abuse", what are they meant to do?

LiveLongAndProsper

I think the doctor should have said that it could be a disease when he went to the social workers. Like, it looks like the child has been abused, but they could possibly have this disease. Take the child into a short period of care while testing for the disease and then prove that it wasn't abuse. The issue here is the doctor didn't fully assess the child. Broken bones.... must be child abuse.

Redangel1992

this is so sad

that poor family, social workers need to be re-trained in doing their jobs! this is ridiculous!! sorry to the family ad friends !!!!

Kate*

I would also point out that this disease is rare acording to Google it's estimated to occur in 1 in every 20,000 live births. So in most cases, multiple fractures would be considered child abuse and it would just as bad for protective services not to act. Families with these children are given paperwork by the child's doctor explaining the condition in case something like this happens. However, there are 3 different severities and the milder forms easily go undiagnosed.

Koharuchan

Well think about this though. There were no signs she was abused; she didn't have any bruises or anything like that. If they'd beat her and fractured a bone, it would've left some bruises. There was no evidence of abuse.

Kate*

Only if they're talking about recent breaks and injuries, and you can still see old fractures on an x ray after they heal. They probably x-rayed her for a recent injury or something else entirely, saw multiple healed fractures, and jumped to the most logical conclusion (given that the disease is so rare).

George^^

I agree with Haru. And, I think it's sad that something tike this had to happen. Murder-Suicides hit communities hard, expecially since this could have been prevented.

Sure, they wouldn't have known immediatly that it was a bone disease, but they could have let that been at least known that there were factors other than abuse that would explain the broken bones.

Koharuchan

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kate*

Only if they're talking about recent breaks and injuries, and you can still see old fractures on an x ray after they heal. They probably x-rayed her for a recent injury or something else entirely, saw multiple healed fractures, and jumped to the most logical conclusion (given that the disease is so rare).

I'm pretty sure it was a recent injury the mother took her in for; she took her to the doctor because she cried when her mother tried to lift her leg.