BAILEY | GEORGIA

“When I was pregnant with my son, Ridge, he was diagnosed in utero with macrocephaly (an enlarged head circumference). In May 2023, Ridge was born 5 weeks early. He was stuck in the birth canal and required manual manipulation by the OB to get him out. The cord was wrapped around his neck and he wasn’t breathing. He also had significant facial/head bruising, a laceration on the top of his head, and significant head swelling.

Despite his traumatic birth, Ridge was a happy, seemingly healthy baby. He was checked regularly by his pediatrician who was monitoring his macrocephaly.

My husband and I had no idea of the horrific events that would soon occur.

On August 11, 2023, Ridge suddenly became unresponsive. Just 30 minutes before, I had videos of Ridge playing, laughing, and smiling, but now he was completely limp.

I performed CPR and Ridge started agonal breathing. As an EMT, I knew I didn’t have long before he would die. I jumped in my car with Ridge, sternal rubbing him to keep him breathing that one breath every 30 seconds, telling him he had to fight and begging God to save him. I drove to a fire station which was less than a minute away and when I laid him down on the floor there, he started crying.

It felt like an eternity until he was able to be life-flighted from a nearby parking lot to the children’s hospital.

At the children’s hospital, Ridge was found to have Rhinovirus, ‘chronic’ bilateral subdural hematomas, and retinal hemorrhages. The doctor told us during testing there had been an incidental finding on the MRI so it was protocol to do a full body skeletal survey. I told him ‘of course, whatever needs to be done.’

After the X-rays were done, it was like pulling teeth to get them to tell us anything. Finally, someone came in and said Ridge had 3 ‘healing’ rib fractures. I told them there was no way, I was with Ridge 24/7 and he never showed signs of being in pain. We were shocked to learn the child abuse pediatrician claimed Ridge had been shaken. My husband and I were being wrongfully accused of Shaken Baby Syndrome.

I tried explaining to them that Ridge had a traumatic birth, that he had healing hematomas to the head which were documented in his birth records, to which the doctor put his hand in my face and said ‘that didn’t cause this.’

My husband and I were taken away from Ridge, at a time when he needed us the most, for numerous interviews with law enforcement, DFCS, and social workers. It was horrific to say the least.

Once back in the PICU with Ridge, I observed him to be having what I believed were seizures, but no one would listen. I had to record my son and demand a doctor come watch the video of what I had been seeing. The doctor believed me after watching the video and ordered an EEG which confirmed my concerns of seizures.

Most of the staff was so focused on this being child abuse, they refused to treat my son objectively and were missing things because of it.

I was a hysterical mess a week later as Ridge was being discharged. He would not be allowed to come home with us, but was discharged to the care of fictive kin (the care of close family friends).

My husband and I were arrested and charged with first degree child cruelty charges. My husband spent 6 days in jail (maximum security), and I spent approximately 24 hours in jail. This is coming from two people who had NEVER been in trouble. Terrified doesn’t do it justice.

Fast forward to December, Ridge tested positive for flu A. The next morning, his caregiver noticed his head feeling more full than normal so I met her to take Ridge to the children’s hospital just to be safe. The ER initially blew us off and said his head felt fine, but given his history, they would do a CT. Sure enough, Ridge had another unexplained acute subdural hematoma.

The children’s hospital ran another non accidental trauma workup on Ridge. I told the doctors they can’t just keep saying everyone is abusing him and begged them to look further into this. In response, they did a blood clotting disorder rule-out which came back abnormal, along with Ridge’s platelet function.

The neurologist told us something was going on with Ridge, that this was NOT child abuse and they had made a mistake. I said ‘my husband and I were arrested for this’ and he told us hopefully he could testify on our behalf to prove this was not child abuse and apologized for all the time we had lost with Ridge. But when I followed up on this matter with the neurologist the next day, he now said the children’s hospital’s legal team would have to take care of it…

This time, Ridge was discharged to my parents because DFCS wouldn’t allow him to go back to the other caregivers’ house due to the unexplained brain bleed.

Fast forward to trial where our expert witnesses testified: It was proven the ‘hematomas’ had been there since Ridge’s birth. We learned thousands of babies are born everyday with subdural hematomas however it’s never found because the babies (without bleeding/blood clotting disorders) clear the blood on their own. However, Ridge was found to have a type of blood clotting disorder and is still currently seeing a hematologist for more answers.

Our expert witnesses testified that if you put my son beside 2,000 babies his age, he would have the biggest head. They noted the significant jump in his head size the week he went unresponsive. Ridge had suffered multiple tiny strokes, which in turn aggravated the brain to cause uncontrollable ‘subclinical seizures.’

At trial, the doctor from the child abuse pediatrician’s team admitted to not looking into Ridge’s prior medical history and had based her diagnosis solely off of the findings from testing at the children’s hospital.

The judge ruled in our favor and ordered Ridge to be returned home. Unfortunately we’re still waiting to hear if the district attorney is moving forward with criminal charges so due to our bond agreement, we cannot be alone with Ridge yet. For now, he remains with my parents, but I am able to have unlimited time with him as long as it’s supervised and we’re hoping soon for charges to be dropped.

Ridge is doing great. This boy fought so hard even when his mom and dad couldn’t be with him. His strength is something I will admire and remind him of everyday.

Ridge’s labs at this time are consistent with a coagulation disorder called Dysfibrinogenemia. Ridge is always at risk for bleeds, but even more so when he is sick because infection plays a huge factor in dysfibrinogenemia. Ridge’s hematologist will be monitoring and drawing more labs to confirm this condition over the next several months. In the meantime, if Ridge, has random bruising/bleeding, hits any part of his body, gets sick, etc. he has to be seen immediately.

I share my story so that I can help navigate other families who are wrongfully accused of child abuse through this process. It helped us so much having support from other families who experienced something so awful, but fought everyday and made it through.

I made the decision that I refused to allow this traumatic situation to control me. I chose to let it help shape me into a better wife, mother, friend, daughter, sister, and follower of Christ. I learned to solely rely on Jesus for my strength. The devil may be strong, but our God is stronger and His love for us will shine through this story every time I share it.

To every single person involved in this story, from the bottom of my heart thank you. There are no words to express how grateful I am and I will never be able to repay any of you for helping me fight the good fight, and get my baby back in my arms, where he should have been the whole time.”