I have been involved in countless DCF Investigations in which child abuse is alleged.
DCF will ask the parents to explain how the injury occurred. DCF then provides the child’s medical records, statements of the parent’s explanations and any other pertinent information to a pediatrician specializing in the diagnosis of child abuse. If, according to the DCF expert, the parent’s version is inconsistent with the child’s injuries, the parents will be charged with abuse. (The fancy legal language is “injuries that are at variance with the history given of them.”)
The consulting physicians that DCF retains are in my opinion ultra conservative. Maybe understandably so. Often times however, the DCF expert is unable to determine the cause of the injury but only that the parent’s explanation does not make sense. DCF then removes the child until it can be determined exactly what happened or at least until the safety of the child can be assured.
I know of cases where parents have passionately argued to DCF that perhaps there were other causes for the injuries. DCF rarely believes it notwithstanding that there are many diseases, which mimic symptoms of child abuse including hereditary blood disorders, leukemia and vitamin K deficiency.
Well good news. Dr. Michael Laposta is developing a new blood regimen that will rule out these types of disorders as the cause of child abuse. Here’s hoping this testing decreases the misdiagnosis of child abuse.
Reads the article here:
Pioneering a Way to Distinguish Blood Disorders From Child Abuse – ProPublica