My Story

Hi, my name is Barbora and I live in Waterloo with my family. In 2017, my then 8-week-old son got sick with sepsis and its complications (strokes) and despite having passed all well baby checkups, both he and his twin sister were suffering from infantile rickets (a complication of vitamin D deficiency), resulting in occult fractures through normal handling. You can watch our story in CTV W5’s documentary Dubious Diagnosis (we are the second family, identity hidden due to a court order).

My son (a prematurely born twin) suddenly stopped breathing at 8 weeks of age. He as he was being held by my husband in a rocking chair. In the ER, he was found to have multiple old and one acute rib fracture. There was no explanation for him to have fractures, there was no fall, no injury and certainly no abuse. Yet, that was exactly what we got accused of. My son, his twin and their brother were apprehended over the phone (!) while we were still in the ER at Grand River Hospital in Kitchener.

Later that night, he was transported to McMaster, Hamilton. More scanning was done and showed bleeding on his brain, old and acute. Again, there was no sign of abuse of any sort on his scalp, skull, neck or face. There was not a scratch or a bruise on his body. Yet, the pediatrician and “child abuse expert” who became our accusing doctor, saw no other explanation for his condition other that abuse. She did not order any genetic testing or extensive bloodwork to rule out any other known conditions that mimic child abuse before diagnosing. We, the parents, were at that time not aware that there are conditions that mimic child abuse and that we just became one of many families affected by medical kidnapping.

My other two children were examined on day 2 by the same doctor. The other twin was also found to have old fractures and no signs of physical abuse. This did not change the accusing doctor’s explanation of both premature twins’ fractures - the official diagnosis was still child abuse. Yet, interestingly, the other twin was not considered a child abuse victim. Our oldest had absolutely no signs of abuse and at age 4 confirmed that nobody in our household behaved abusively towards him.

I requested my son’s medical records to get second opinions. The hospital in cooperation with CAS refused to provide me with them. The accusing doctor later claimed that she had “no recollection” of me requesting the records, although there is written evidence of it.

Later, I found this is one of the common practices in cases of medical kidnapping - parents, accused of abuse, demand second opinions because they know they did not hurt their child, but are refused access to medical records (usually fully backed up by CAS in case the children had already been apprehended). Beware of this and know that you absolutely have the right to access your child’s medical records. Contact your lawyer and file a motion to get all medical records, nursing staff notes, and very importantly, all imaging. This step is vital to get your child diagnosed properly.

My son was hospitalized for a month because he developed strong seizures that were difficult to manage. Me and my husband were not allowed access to him in the pediatric intensive care unit for several days, although he was a breastfed baby. I complained and was allowed to drop off milk at the door, but not stay at his bedside. Several days later, merely because of miscommunication between CAS and PICU staff, we were allowed access, but were told that once he’s released from PICU into general ward, we won’t be able to stay at his bedside again, since there is no nurse 24/7 to keep an eye on us. You can only imagine how desperate a mother of a sick child is, firstly because her child is sick, secondly because the reason is unknown, thirdly, because she and the child’s father are treated as abusers, and fourthly, because she is not allowed to stay at her sick child’s bedside. My son was then a 2 month-old preemie.

Thankfully, my son survived and recovered to the point that he was ready to move from intensive care to the regular ward. The accusing doctor and CAS workers refused to let me stay by his bedside, I was desperate, complained again and was lucky to get support from one of the PICU nurses (whose name I’m ashamed to have forgotten in the whirlwind of the events), who simply refused to move my son unless I’m allowed to stay at his bedside. I am so thankful to her for her support and will do my best to track her and thank her in person.

My son recovered beyond the doctors’ expectations and while he suffers from cerebral palsy (CP), cortical visual impairment (CVI) and developmental delays as a result of his brain bleed caused by multiple massive strokes and grueling seizures , he is far from being in the “vegetative state” we were told he’ll stay in by the neurologist from McMaster who had failed to see my son’s strokes on a CT scan in the first place.

In January 2018, a little over a month after this hell had started, my husband got charged with aggravated assault against our baby. Interestingly enough, he was not charged with assaulting his twin sister, although she, too, had presented with old fractures in various stages of healing. He was released on bail, had to move out of the family home and as ordered by the Crown prosecutor, had no contact at all with any of his children, not even supervised visits or online chats or calls. Little did we know that this will go on for 3 long years.

When my children finally got back into my care after horrifically long six months, I was able to get their medical records and started digging into the actual reason for my twins’ fractures and my son’s brain bleed. We hired experts who went through my son’s medical records and images and at long last, we knew what had happened to him. He was diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency rickets, complicated by his prematurity and being a twin. The fractures that both the twins had suffered were low-impact (occult) fractures that didn’t present with signs as bruising, swelling or abnormal pain reactions. At the time of his collapse, my son was found to have an infection (that didn’t present with a fever) that led to hemorrhage strokes and severe seizures. His bloodwork showed white blood count levels that the laboratory marked as panic high and nursing staff noted that they were sucking thick white liquid from his lungs. The accusing doctor turned a blind eye on these facts (as well as other panic high/low markers in his bloodwork). Later, at trial, she testified that the panic high white blood cell count must have been due to stress, not infection.

I cannot describe the relief when, after so many grueling months, biased accusations and CAS-induced trauma we finally had an explanation of it all.

It took three long hard years -December 1, 2017 to April 30, 2021 for my husband to hear the judge’s verdict - not guilty and for our family to be reunited. The trial took 5 weeks and 2 days, to an extent due to Crown’s obstructions and extremely slow pace. She tried to discredit all our experts so that they would not even be allowed to testify. She must have knows that if they do, she’ll lose. I can highly recommend dr.Jane Turner and dr.Joseph Scheller as expert witnesses. Dr.Charles Hyman, another expert witness that we had, is, sadly, retiring from his expert practice, but has very generously agreed to be of help to our group.

Financially, false child abuse accusation cost us around $300 000 in lawyer fees and tens of thousands in expert witness fees.

After the verdict we thought the nightmare was finally over. But one day after the end of our criminal trial, the Waterloo CAS contacted us to say that they would like to “discuss the outcome of the trial and what it means to your family”. Family cases were closed by the judge in August 2019, but a month later CAS suddenly sent me a letter saying that whatever the outcome of the criminal trial will be, based on their “investigation” they are still going to treat my husband as guilty based on their “investigation” and “verification”. Insane? No doubt. Really happening? Yes. Be aware of this. The fact that you are found not guilty at a criminal trial isn’t enough evidence for CAS and you might be facing yet another fight at court.

Between March 31 and May 18, 2021, when the CAS finally gave up and closed the file, they tried to get personal information about our son’s current health, they requested to speak to his medical professionals and they were not going to budge on their “verified” information. Yet, when asked to be specific about their verifications and prove it, they would wiggle out of these questions, saying these questions had been discussed already. Actually, they were discussed in the sense that we kept asking to be provided with any evidence for their “verified” claims and the process of verification itself. We never got answers to these questions to date, when the file is finally closed.

I am now progressing to writing detailed complaints to the Ombudsman and the Ministry about the shady practices of CAS Waterloo and contacting the media to share our story in the hope to raise awareness of the false child abuse/medical kidnapping phenomenon.

There is so much shame and CAS-induced fear connected to parents falsely accused of child abuse that they, sometimes even after their case has long been resolved, never share their story publicly. This silence only fuels further medical kidnapping to be happening. Please, do share your story, talk about the people who harmed your family and help stop CAS -supported medical kidnapping based on misdiagnoses by “child abuse” pediatricians.

It is, sadly, more common than you might think. Please, speak up. Please, listen. Never give up the fight.

Thank you.