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“In December 2022, our daughter Paisleigh was 3 months old when we noticed her hand looked oddly colored. I wiped her hand thinking maybe she’d gotten something on it and checked if there was a hair wrapped around a finger cutting off circulation, but didn’t find anything. We sent pictures to her pediatrician who said it looked like superficial veins, but my husband Tyler and I were worried that the coloring hadn’t shown up well enough in the pictures and it was maybe something more. The pediatrician’s office was closing for the day so as new parents concerned about what this could be, we decided to go to a pediatric urgent care affiliated with our local children’s hospital.
The urgent care looked Pasleigh over then told us to go to the main campus of the children’s hospital for further testing. There, they did blood work and X-rays of her upper arm/shoulder to see if she had an extra bone that was constricting blood flow. All of the testing came back normal. They still didn’t know what it was, but told us it could be a blood clot.
We were given the option to be admitted or to go home and schedule an ultrasound for a later date. Concerned about a potential blood clot, we decided to be admitted. Shortly after, we were told it didn’t appear urgent, that we could go home, but again we requested to stay just to be safe since they hadn’t ruled out blood clots yet.
The next morning they did an ultrasound. Later that day, the doctor informed us that the ultrasound had come back normal and that because the ultrasound hadn’t found any issues, Paisleigh’s discoloration appeared to be ‘unexplained bruises.’ They told us according to their hospital’s protocol, we would have to meet with their child abuse pediatrician.
Our hearts broke into a million pieces. We KNEW we had done NOTHING to our precious baby and told them that this was 1000% NOT the case. Paisleigh had literally never left my side since birth. We explained all of this to the child abuse pediatrician and answered all of her questions. She then handed our case off to the hospital social worker who questioned us and we again went through everything through tears. We just wanted to know what was wrong with our baby. We had come to them for answers for our daughter and now they were putting us under 24/7 camera surveillance because they thought we abused her. It was so degrading.
The next day, they made Paisleigh go through non-accidental trauma testing. She had to be strapped down for full body x-rays, an eye exam (which Tyler had to insert things into her eyes so they could hold them open), and had to have imaging of her brain to make sure we hadn’t abused her. We then had to meet with a CPS caseworker. Of course all of the abuse workup came back normal because Paisleigh wasn’t abused, but still they kept pushing that it was child abuse. Our hearts were completely shattered.
For the next two days we cried and prayed for answers. Everyone kept saying it appeared to be abuse, but one doctor suggested it could be an AVM (arteriovenous malformation) which is an abnormal tangle of blood vessels that connects the arteries and veins. This doctor recommended an MRI of Paisleigh’s arm. The hospital wanted to discharge us and have us schedule an MRI for later, but we weren’t leaving without a diagnosis. I told one of the residents to go downstairs and schedule an MRI for tomorrow and work it all out. We got an MRI scheduled for noon the next day. Parents, ADVOCATE for your child!!! If I hadn’t been so pushy at this point, I don’t know how long this would’ve been drug out!
The CPS caseworker explained that if they didn’t find anything on the MRI it would automatically be assumed that it was child abuse and they could take Paisleigh from us. Our hearts dropped into our stomachs. Tyler and I cried our eyes out. Tyler’s dad was in the room at the time and prayed with us.
They took our baby girl to be put to sleep for an MRI to determine if it was indeed an AVM or would be considered child abuse. We prayed over her and asked God to help us. It was sad that I had to pray that they found something wrong with my baby in order for them to stop all of these accusations and for us to be able to take Paisleigh home with us.
We waited for what seemed like an eternity until they called us in to come see our baby as she was waking up. A few hours later the doctors told us they had indeed found an AVM in Paisleigh’s hand and possibly another one further up in her arm region. This would explain the discoloration and why it would go from normal to different colors depending on how she had her arm laid due to the blood pooling up.
They told us Paisleigh thankfully had the best type of AVM there was and that it would probably not ever cause her any serious problems, it would likely just be a cosmetic issue. We praised the Lord that Paisleigh’s AVM wasn’t in a serious location such as the brain and that hers wasn’t a deep one involving major veins and arteries. God answered our prayers in the best way. We got to go home that day, but CPS still had to come out and look at our home even though we had a diagnosis.
I thank God we never lost custody of our baby, but this incident forever changed me. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it daily. I’ve had anxiety and panic attacks. I’ve since connected with multiple families who have been through similar ordeals after seeking medical care, with some having had their babies taken from them even after finding medical diagnoses. Many are still fighting to bring their babies home.
I share my story because I want other parents to be aware of this issue. I want to help prevent others from going through what we did. I want to raise awareness for those still advocating to find their children’s diagnoses. We know that abuse does happen, we know that hospitals have protocol, but jumping to non-accidental trauma workup and accusations of abuse before running thorough testing for medical conditions needs to stop.”
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