PASSAGE OF THE DAY: “What followed, according to more than 15 medical experts who later reviewed Cox’s case, was a series of medical mistakes and misstatements by hospital staff members that has devastated Cox’s family and derailed his career.”In addition to mistaking birthmarks for bruises and misinterpreting the results of a blood test, some staffers seemed so eager to find abuse that they hallucinated it. How come? Children’s Wisconsin, like many hospitals, has bought into the theory of “sentinel injuries” — the idea that minor bruises can be warning signs of future abuse, so each bruise must be treated as suspicious. Surely, violence against kids can escalate over time. But it is also true that many kids get bumps and bruises not because their parents are evil but because, well, kids get bumps and bruises — even fractures. “Several emergency room doctors described an ‘out of control’ child abuse team that is too quick to report minor injuries to authorities and that is too closely aligned with state child welfare investigators,” Hixenbaugh writes. In fact, five of the doctors at that hospital not involved with this case told him they’d be afraid to take their own kids there with an injury — for fear of tripwiring an abuse investigation. In part, the problem can be traced to the advent of the “child abuse pediatrician” — a new specialty that claims to be able to tell adult-inflicted injuries from innocent ones. It’s not just that to a hammer everything is a nail; it’s also the fact that these specialists are not plain old doctors working for the good of the patient. As Diane Redleaf, the legal consultant at Let Grow, explains, “Child abuse pediatricians very often operate under secret contracts with police, child protection and prosecution offices (never disclosed to the parents bringing their children in for emergency treatment). These individuals have been billed as having special superhuman powers to tell abuse from accidents and rare diseases, superior to the powers of other doctors because they ‘know child abuse when they see it.’'
COMMENTARY: "A Bruise Is Not Always Abuse," by Lenore Skenazy, published by Magic Valley on February 2, 2020. (Lenore Skenazy is president of Let Grow, founder of Free-Range Kids and author of “Has the World Gone Skenazy?")
GIST: “Taking her to our own hospital was the single most harmful decision that we made for our baby.” So
said a dad who worried he’d accidentally injured his newly adopted
infant by rolling into her when they both dozed off. He took her to the
hospital just to make sure she was fine. Turns out she had suffered a
minor fracture that is common in babies and heals on its own. That was
in May. Two weeks later, child protective services declared him a child
abuser and took the baby from him and his wife. The child has been in foster care now for eight months. She is 9 months old.
What
happened? NBC’s Mike Hixenbaugh did a remarkable investigative story on
how easy it seems to be for the authorities to see almost any bump or
bruise as evidence of evil. That
fateful May night, the dad, John Cox (himself a pediatric emergency
doctor at Children’s Wisconsin, the hospital he took his baby to)
thought that the way the girl was moving her arm could indicate
something was wrong. So, Hixenbaugh writes: “Cox
called his wife, Dr. Sadie Dobrozsi, who was out of town with their two
older children, and cried as he explained what had happened. Dobrozsi, a
pediatric oncologist at the same hospital, said she told him to calm
down and asked to video chat. The baby appeared fine to her, but to be
safe, Dobrozsi suggested that Cox take her to see her pediatrician. “’That’s what normal parents who aren’t doctors would do,’ she told him. “What
followed, according to more than 15 medical experts who later reviewed
Cox’s case, was a series of medical mistakes and misstatements by
hospital staff members that has devastated Cox’s family and derailed his
career.”
In addition to
mistaking birthmarks for bruises and misinterpreting the results of a
blood test, some staffers seemed so eager to find abuse that they
hallucinated it. How come? Children’s Wisconsin, like many
hospitals, has bought into the theory of “sentinel injuries” — the idea
that minor bruises can be warning signs of future abuse, so each bruise
must be treated as suspicious. Surely,
violence against kids can escalate over time. But it is also true that
many kids get bumps and bruises not because their parents are evil but
because, well, kids get bumps and bruises — even fractures. “Several
emergency room doctors described an ‘out of control’ child abuse team
that is too quick to report minor injuries to authorities and that is
too closely aligned with state child welfare investigators,” Hixenbaugh
writes. In fact, five of the doctors at that hospital not
involved with this case told him they’d be afraid to take their own
kids there with an injury — for fear of tripwiring an abuse
investigation. In
part, the problem can be traced to the advent of the “child abuse
pediatrician” — a new specialty that claims to be able to tell
adult-inflicted injuries from innocent ones. It’s not just that to a
hammer everything is a nail; it’s also the fact that these specialists
are not plain old doctors working for the good of the patient. As
Diane Redleaf, the legal consultant at Let Grow, explains, “Child abuse
pediatricians very often operate under secret contracts with police,
child protection and prosecution offices (never disclosed to the parents
bringing their children in for emergency treatment). These individuals
have been billed as having special superhuman powers to tell abuse from
accidents and rare diseases, superior to the powers of other doctors
because they ‘know child abuse when they see it.’” The
Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, as well as the hospital
staffers involved in the case, declined to comment to NBC. Cox
could afford to get outside doctors to review the records, and many
were shaken by what they saw. For instance, a hospital staffer concluded
that a bruise on the baby’s foot indicated abuse ... when actually it
was caused by the hospital itself drawing blood from the baby’s heel. At this point, the baby is still in foster care. We all agree children should be kept safe from abuse — including when it comes swaddled in “protective services.""
https://magicvalley.com/opinion/columnists/lenore-skenazy-a-bruise-is-not-always-abuse/article_cfc62a79-04bf-5878-8a33-25507e86157c.html
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;
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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