SUB-HEADING: "Texas lawmakers pledge to “learn from past mistakes” as parents recall the pain of having children taken following disputed doctor reports."
AUSTIN,
Texas — Lorina Troy’s voice trembled as she told lawmakers about the
moment her baby and 4-year-old son were taken away by Child Protective
Services. “Are they going to hurt me, Mommy?” Troy said her 4-year-old asked as a worker loaded him into a car. The mother’s emotional testimony came during a daylong hearing called by Texas lawmakers in response to an investigation by NBC News and the Houston Chronicle that highlighted the plight of parents who’d been accused of child abuse based on mistaken reports by doctors. The reporting showed that child welfare workers removed some children from homes after receiving reports from state-funded child abuse pediatricians that were later called into question, leading to traumatic family separations and monthslong legal fights. Troy’s
ordeal started in 2015 when her infant son suffered a small,
unexplained brain bleed. A child abuse pediatrician at an Austin
hospital overlooked an underlying medical condition and said the boy was
a victim of shaken baby syndrome. That diagnosis led the state to take
both of Troy’s children. The children spent
five months in foster care, and Troy’s husband, Jason, was charged
criminally before another doctor reviewed the baby’s medical records and
found that the excess fluid in the child’s head was actually the result
of the undiagnosed neurological condition. “How
would you feel if this type of situation were to happen to you?” Troy
said to members of the Texas House of Representatives committee that
oversees the state’s child welfare system. Rep. James Frank, the committee chairman, said the NBC News and Chronicle investigation exposed serious problems and that Tuesday’s hearing was the first step in coming up with solutions “We’re
here to learn from past mistakes,” Frank said at the start of the
hearing, which also featured testimony from child welfare officials,
prosecutors and doctors. Committee
members peppered officials with broad questions about the enormous
weight given to the opinions of child abuse doctors, and how to weigh
child safety against the possibility of an unnecessary removal. The
elected officials zeroed in with more targeted questions about the
appropriateness of the current legal standards for taking children, the
agency’s wildly varying removal rates across the state, and concerns
about whether child abuse specialists can accurately evaluate children
they didn’t personally examine. Dr. James
Lukefahr, a child abuse pediatrician based in San Antonio, testified on
behalf of the Texas chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Lukefahr defended the work of child abuse pediatricians, a new and
growing medical subspecialty of doctors who work closely with child
welfare agencies to identify signs of abuse and protect children from
additional harm. Lukefahr said child abuse pediatricians are also
trained to find underlying conditions that can mimic abuse, so they can
prevent needless removals. But, he said, nobody is perfect. “Working
in this field I’ve seen terrible things, babies with a dozen broken
bones, children maliciously burned, teenagers beaten to the edge of
their lives,” Lukefahr said. “I’ve also seen mistakes, processes not
followed, errors in judgment, and decisions that were based more on
emotion than science.” Parents whose stories were detailed in the NBC News and Chronicle series were among those who spoke. Tim Timmerman described the moment when he awoke one night in 2016 and found his 4-month-old son limp in bed next to him. A day after rushing the child to a nearby emergency room,
a neurosurgeon at Children’s Memorial Hermann in Houston told the
family not to worry: The baby had suffered a minor brain bleed, possibly
the result of trauma suffered during childbirth. But
soon after, a child abuse pediatrician entered the hospital room and
said she disagreed. She believed the baby had been shaken, and her
concerns led Child Protective Services to take custody. Later, the
doctor reported that the child’s injuries were “certainly inflicted.” Three
outside medical experts reviewed the case and concluded the baby
suffered from an underlying medical condition, but seven months passed
before the Timmermans regained full custody. They spent more than
$200,000 to defend themselves, Timmerman told lawmakers, who appeared
shocked. “I urge this committee to put
yourselves in the shoes of my family or one of the many other families
here today,” he said. “Think about how you would feel if your child or
grandchild was taken out of your arms with no standard of proof other
than the opinion of a single individual.” Ajshay James lost custody of her 2-year-old daughter after doctors at Texas Children’s Hospital accused her of giving the child unneeded medical treatments in 2017. The NBC News and Chronicle investigation found
evidence that doctors repeatedly overstated the evidence against her,
though the hospital has defended its handling of the case. James
choked back tears as she described her ordeal. She told lawmakers that,
as far as Child Protective Services was concerned, the opinion of the
child abuse pediatricians were all that mattered. “In this process,”
James said, “you are guilty until [proven] innocent.” Lukefahr
said he and his colleagues are open to finding ways to improve the
system, but he warned lawmakers against making changes that could hinder
the state’s efforts to protect vulnerable children. “We
pediatricians pledge to work diligently to improve the things we can
improve,” he said. “But we also ask everyone to remember what can happen
when the pendulum swings too far in any one direction.” Frank,
the committee chairman, said he intended to call additional hearings in
the coming months in order to develop ways to improve the system and
protect parents. Some legislators have suggested creating a way for
courts, child welfare workers or accused families to request a second
medical opinion before the state removes a child from a home. “The
vast majority of the time, we’re talking about trying to make sure we
prevent every child death,” Frank said. “We understand the tremendous
impact of missing it on the other side, but it is a careful balance that
we need to have.""
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/parents-call-reforms-protect-families-mistaken-child-abuse-allegations-n1080926
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
