LAURA | KENTUCKY

"I took my 4 month old son to the pediatric ER in the middle of the night when I woke and saw him having, what I assumed, was a seizure in his leg. He had been sick in the weeks leading up to this day, but his doctor believed it was a stomach bug and virus. They took several tests in the ER and were concerned about some of the results and wanted to admit him to the children’s hospital.

A day later he was sedated for an MRI and spinal tap. They told us they found blood and other fluid in his brain and wanted to do follow up tests the next day. They told us it was protocol for a team called the “forensics team” to get involved whenever a child under 4 has blood in their brain. They presented themselves as wanting to also figure out what was wrong with Jaxon, but we later learned they were only there to collect evidence to charge us with abusing Jaxon.

Although Jaxon’s actual medical condition, Benign Enlargement of Subarachnoid Spaces (BESS), was noted on his MRI, the child abuse pediatrician (who never saw Jaxon or spoke with us) determined it could only be abusive head trauma. At the time, it was unknown to us that his true medical condition, BESS, had been noted on his MRI. BESS was actually a condition we had asked them to rule out as it often mimics shaken baby syndrome.

Jaxon had no broken bones or bruises or any signs of abuse. We continued to tell the hospital that Jaxon had not been abused and there must be a medical condition that they aren’t finding, but they refused to look any further. Our son was misdiagnosed with abusive head trauma (commonly known as shaken baby syndrome) and we lost custody of him and our three year old daughter.

We endured ten long months of finding answers to our son’s medical condition and fighting and going to trial for custody of our children. On our last day of trial the judge ruled there was no evidence of abuse or neglect and we were awarded custody back of our children. Today, Jaxon is a 23 month old little boy who is healthy and meeting all of his milestones. He required no medical intervention.

Throughout our ordeal God kept speaking to me the verse of Genesis 50:20 'You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.' Before our nightmare, we had no idea that child abuse pediatricians even existed and that families all over the country are being falsely accused of abusing their children and having their children placed into foster care. We now use our story to help educate families on how to protect themselves from being falsely accused. No one believes it could happen to them until it does.”