PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Rarely do I see such a hard-hitting, deeply probing journalistic masterpiece. This collaboration meets all the tests. I look forward to the up-coming installments. This article simply cannot be reduced in size. (Except for the few opening paragraphs I have provided for a 'taste.') I recommend reading it word by word.
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.-----------------------------------------------------------
SUB-HEADING: "Doctors trained to spot child abuse can save lives. But when they get it wrong, families are torn apart."
GIST: "A panicked voice jolted Ann Marie Timmerman awake around 3 a.m. “There’s something wrong with Tristan.” Her
husband, Tim, stood over her, wide-eyed, holding their 4-month-old boy.
Tim had been sitting up with the baby in another room, letting his
nursing wife catch up on sleep. Now the infant was limp in his arms,
pupils rolling back in his head. My baby's dying, Ann Marie thought as she jumped out of bed that night more than three years ago. No time for an ambulance. She
yanked on a pair of pants, grabbed the child and got in her car while
Tim stayed behind with their two older boys. As Ann Marie sped down the
highway — one hand on the wheel, the other pressing her baby to her
chest — she prayed out loud: “God, please don't take him from me.” Tristan
had been their “miracle baby,” born healthy after doctors diagnosed her
with an autoimmune disorder and warned she might not be able to have a
third child. Now, as she ran barefoot into an emergency room in Katy, Texas, she was afraid she might lose him. She was right, it would turn out. But not in the way she feared. A different kind of doctor: A
day later, after Tristan was taken by ambulance 30 minutes away to
Children’s Memorial Hermann hospital in Houston, a string of specialists
cycled through his room. A radiologist scanned his brain. Another
doctor examined his eyes. Then a neurosurgeon delivered
good news: Tristan had a tiny brain bleed, Dr. David Sandberg said,
possibly the consequence of a head injury that babies sometimes suffer
during childbirth. It probably would resolve in a few days, he
explained, and Tristan was safe to go home. Ann Marie cried with relief as she and Tim awaited discharge papers. But
soon another doctor entered Tristan’s room and told the Timmermans she
had reached a far different conclusion. Dr. Rebecca Girardet said it
appeared that Tristan also had suffered bleeding in his eyes, and
because of that, she wanted a more detailed brain scan. When Ann Marie protested, the doctor explained herself. “I believe that he may have been shaken,” Girardet said, according to her notes, shocking the Timmermans into silence. They
didn’t know it at the time, but Girardet is not a typical pediatrician.
She’s a leading figure in a relatively small but growing subspecialty
of doctors who practice a rare blend of medicine and forensics, relying
on medical imaging, witness interviews and past experience to diagnose
not only a child’s condition, but also what caused it. Unbeknownst
to many parents who encounter them, these pediatricians, now stationed
at virtually every major children’s hospital in the country, work
closely with child welfare agencies and law enforcement, providing
expert reports and court testimony in thousands of cases a year and
helping to shield untold numbers of abused children from additional
harm. But in their zeal to protect children, some child
abuse pediatricians also have implicated parents who appear to have
credible claims of innocence, leading to traumatic family separations
and questionable criminal charges, an investigation by NBC News and the
Houston Chronicle has found."
The entire story can be read at:
