Erin’s story
(from the USA - same broken system of fabricated child abuse by child abuse pediatricians and Children’s Services)
In March of 2019, my daughter gave birth to twin boys at 33 weeks gestation. They were in the NICU for 2 weeks before heading home. After almost 2 weeks home, Twin B was congested so Mom took him to the Navy Hospital & was told by the doctor that he was fine. He said she must not be feeding him correctly and mansplained the use of a bulb syringe. The next night he was found unconscious & “floppy,” as Mom would describe him. Dad called 9-1-1 while Mom did Infant CPR that they were taught before leaving the birth hospital. By the time EMS arrived Leo was breathing again and his color was starting to return. He spent another (approx.) 7-10 days in the hospital while these episodes continued both in and out of the parents presence.
May 2nd, Mom was doing morning diaper changes and noticed Leo’s leg was swollen. She took him to the ER where they asked about any other symptoms he was having. She told them he’d been fussy over the last day but she thought he was just constipated, as was normal for him, so far. The hospital wrote down that she brought him in due to fussiness and constipation, not the swollen leg.
Leo was sent to Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma, WA where Mom and Dad would soon find out his femur was broken. Full body x-rays would also reveal fractured ribs. It was during this time, while the medical staff was attending to Leo, that Mom was able to focus on Twin A, Caelum. As she undressed him to change his diaper she noticed his opposite leg was swollen in the same location as his brother and she alerted the nurse. X-rays would show he also had a broken femur, his ribs were “suspicious for fractures” and had a “bulbous appearance.”
As Mom and I messaged throughout the day, and as the injuries started piling up, I thought Dad had to have hurt the babies. Mom was adamant that he would never do that and she wholly believed that they must have a medical condition that caused weak bones. As more and more labs came in, my sister and I scoured medical articles for answers and we all started to believe Mom was right.
As with any infant with fractures, we expected a visit from CPS but Mom wasn’t worried. She knew no one had hurt her babies and she believed the hospital would do what they’re expected to do; find answers and address the cause. Instead, they took custody of the babies and kicked both parents out of the hospital. The staff would note that Mom had been “unemotional” during the hospital visit & claimed she showed no emotion when being forcibly removed. While she wasn’t emotional when she believed the hospital would do their due diligence, she was destraught when they kicked them out. She immediately called me and was absolutely inconsolable.
I was on a plane 3 days later and was hell-bent on getting the twins placed with me while we waited for an investigation that never really started.
I was immediately shot down. CPS told me they wouldn’t allow me to take the babies back to Florida and would only consider local placement. I told them I would stay, and I did. They continued to deny me access to the twins. The same tiny little humans I’d done skin-to-skin with in the NICU and who’d been snatched away from the parents whose sounds and smells they knew so well. I was the only other person available at the time who had any connection to the boys and still, they denied me. It was clear they didn’t appreciate my concern for their medical health or my pointed questions about abnormal labs and indecisive radiology reports.
From the time the babies were taken we gathered every medical record pertaining to them, in utero and out, every hospital record, doctor visit, and even prenatal care. We looked for anything outside of normal, any notation, lab result, radiology report, x-ray image, etc., and we made a list. When we started researching online, our suspicions grew; we were seeing medical journals, peer-reviewed medical studies, experts on bone health, experts on genetic diseases, and radiologists with decades of experience and they all pointed us to metabolic bone disease (MBD).
MBD was formerly known as Rickets and is a disease caused by a severe Vitamin D Deficiency (VDD). The body needs VD in order to absorb calcium and it needs calcium to build strong bones. There are multiple high-risk factors that increase the likelihood of an infant having MBD; those include: multiples, males, melanated, history of fetal growth restriction, premature, born in the winter months, born at a location known for VDD (due to lack of sunlight exposure), mother having a history of VDD, hyperemesis gravidarum (a severe form of morning sickness that limits access to necessary vitamins through nausea, vomiting, and/or loss of appetite), as well as a history of caffeine intake during pregnancy and use of acid reducers for indegestion (both of these reduce calcium absorption). The twins had all of these.
As we read birth records we were surprised to learn that Caulem’s NICU Intake noted a “large pectus excavatum,” which is a recess in the breastbone and when searched on The National Center for Biotechnology Information’s (NCBI) website you’ll find that the most likely cause of a pectus excavatum is MBD. No one ever mentioned this. No one ever mentioned any of this. Not the likelihood of MBD, not the EVIDENCE of MBD.
On the radiology reports from the days after the twins were taken, the radiologist wrote that Caelum’s ribs were “suspicious for fractures” and had a “bulbous appearance.” The NCBI website also says that this bulbous appearance is common in children with MBD and that MBD is the most likely explanation. In the lab work there were abnormal results and when searched together brought forth more articles from NCBI about MBD.
The fact that Leo had been given CPR just weeks prior was ignored and said to be an excuse Mom was trying to use to suggest mode of injury for the rib fractures she “caused” by abuse. ER doctor and UNCERTIFIED Child Abuse Pediatrician, Dr. Elizabeth Woods, said this was a case of “horrific abuse” on the part of Mom, since Dad was back at work and only Mom was alone with the babies. She never reviewed their medical history and she lied, repeatedly, about the twins’ labs and bone health being “outstanding.” Even when those labs were anything but. We pushed for tests that would review the babies’ bone density but were ignored and denied, repeatedly.
Woods pushed CPS to try and deny visits between the babies and their parents. When told that a judge would likely give them visits anyway, she pleaded for the “highest level of supervision possible.” A statement she’d used in a prior case where a judge in King County said her allegations were without merit and entered a stinging admonishment into the Court Order dismissing Woods’ case. Judge Susan Amini said Woods seemed more concerned about defending her reputation than actually proving her allegations of abuse. She also noted that Woods claimed in her statements that multiple doctors agreed with her assessment, while no specific doctors were ever listed and there were no other notes that corroborated a concern for abuse. The same was true in our babies’ case. No one cared.
Several experts reviewed the twins’ medical records. All three concluded that this was a straightforward case of MBD. They included supporting documents and easy to understand illustrations of what evidence supported this in the twins’ x-rays. They pointed out that a Mary Bridge nurse suggested the need for VD because they were premature infants with fractures. No one cared.
We had the babies blood spot cards from birth tested in an independent lab for VD levels. These blood spots are taken within 24-48 hours of birth and are held in a state lab until they’re 18 (in WA). The lab that tested the samples ran the tests twice on both infants because the VD levels were so low they thought there had been a lab error. They stated on the report that these levels would cause MBD. NO ONE CARED.
Because I believed in the evidence and the experts over the opinion of an ER Pediatrician, I was seen as a liability. CPS claimed that because I disagreed with them about how the babies were injured I wouldn’t take keeping them safe from Mom seriously. They said I didn’t like them so I wouldn’t be cooperative, when in reality it was The Department who refused to follow their own policies and work with me, not because of an unwillingness on my part.
After 9 months of the twins in foster care, in December of 2019, the Commissioner finally acknowledged the unfair bias CPS had against me and he ordered the boys be placed with my wife and I, over The Department’s many objections. We had a single visit with the twins on Christmas Eve. I hadn’t seen them since May at this point and it was my wife’s first time meeting them. We thought we were going to be taking them home soon but found out at the end of that visit that CPS was fighting the Commissioner’s ruling and the boys would be staying with the foster family during the appeal process. I was DEVASTATED. They ended the visit with a “Merry Christmas!” which felt very much like rubbing salt in a wound, the social worker seemed pleased.
The end of January 2020 our appeal was heard and that judge ruled in our favor, as well. We picked the babies up that night. They were at visitation with Dad (Mom hadn’t been allowed to see them since police charged her with abuse in July of 2019). They were asleep as we loaded them into my car and they woke up in a new place, with new people, and absolutely no adjustment period. They adjusted well despite this. I like to believe they still felt that bond from their NICU days and the couple of visits I had with them while they were gone.
From that day CPS continued trying to take them from me. They failed our Home Study, not for any health or safety concerns but because I didn’t agree with their opinion, they said so in their denial letter. They used the failed Home Study as their reason to want the boys removed. They said, multiple times and from the very beginning that they wanted to remove the parents from the twins’ lives and allow them permanency through adoption. No one had even been found guilty of abuse.
In October of 2021 I finally won Guardianship. In November the case with CPS was finally dismissed. I have Guardianship of the boys until they’re adults or until their parents can regain it. Mom’s criminal attorney was court appointed and was absolute garbage. We now know he was telling her she needed to be “realistic” because there was no such thing as justice in the real world and he wanted her to take a plea. Meanwhile he was also going behind her back to ask the prosecutor’s office for a plea deal. The prosecutor’s office ignored the misrepresentations in the police report used to get an arrest warrant, they ignored the inconsistencies in Woods’ Statement of Abuse and the actual medical evidence THAT I POINTED OUT in THEIR FILES, and they ignored the Judge Amini Order admonishing Dr. Woods THAT I SENT THEM. They made a plea offer and when Mom hesitated at accepting it they imported a deadline and sent an email and said that if she didn’t sign it they would add charges and aggravators to push for 25 YEARS TO LIFE IN PRISON. She was scared, she hadn’t seen her babies in almost two whole years, and she had finally lost faith in the system she believed would find Truth and Justice and return her babies to her. She accepted a deal that will allow her to have custody back in 2026, and as long as she complied with the terms of that deal her ENTIRE CASE WILL BE DISMISSED.
Because that sounds like something a prosecutor would be willing to do when he’s convinced you committed “horrific abuse” to your 3 & 4lb infants *sarcasm*.
The trauma caused by this series of events is unmeasurable. The fear that surrounds every bump or bruise is paralyzing. Every unexpected knock at the door brings panic. When my own child was seen at Mary Bridge and I was uncomfortable with the side effects of a medication they prescribed I was scared to even ask questions, in fear they would claim I was medically neglecting my child as they had to other families I now knew about. Mom and Dad both struggle emotionally with the pain and depression that comes with having your new babies LEGALLY KIDNAPPED and kept from them. All of the firsts they missed they can never get back.
The part of parenthood where you learn every day, with every new experience, was stolen and they have had to navigate a new life with two toddlers instead of the gradual process of growing together as a family from infancy. Leo and Caelum have had to become reacquainted with their parents and now get frustrated that they can’t stay at Mommy and Daddy’s house or go when Mommy and Daddy leave. When they wake up during the night and they tell me they miss Mommy and/or Daddy, my heart breaks for them and what was stolen from all of them. All of Us.
Only time will tell what emotional or psychological effects this will have on the boys, or on our entire immediate family. We are ever thankful that we didn’t lose the babies to adoption and that they’re safely with my wife and our kids, no longer with the threat of removal always lingering. But this isn’t a happy ending, it should have never happened in the first place. It could happen to anyone, at any time, in any place.
**Dr Elizabeth Woods has since been fired from her position at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital for her false allegations of abuse against more than, at least, a dozen families in her 5 +/- years there. The Washington Department of Children, Youth, and Families has said that Dr Woods is no longer on their list of doctors whom they have contracts with but that they aren’t saying they wouldn’t reconsider her in the future, despite her lies.