"Non-accidental Trauma"

After our experience at Riley and with CPS, we have learned that any fracture in a child under the age of two is considered a non-accidental trauma until proven otherwise. This means that any children in the home under the age of two and the child who is experiencing the trauma are required to undergo full body skeletal x-ray scans.

This information would have saved me so much stress and so many tears had I just been notified that it was policy.

The day we were discharged was my own personal version of Hell. The cast was placed at 6am, and we were not taken to him in the right recovery room because the nurses running the department were unable to quit talking about their hair and their text messaging for two minutes to look up his name. We were treated badly by the recovery area where he was, because we had not been there. When we explained to them that we had been sitting in another area for over an hour waiting to see our son, they apologized and we were told he'd already been moved to his room.

Crushed that he'd been left post-op by himself, I was very happy to see him spit out his pacifier and blow raspberries at the nurse who was in his room when we got there. He was happy to see us, and the look of distress from his face had disappeared. He felt better, and that was all that mattered to me.

When the social work team came in to talk to us about what had happened and how he was doing, we were told he looked great and they were not very concerned. No wonder we were surprised when the CPS caseworker from my county told us over the phone that our daughter was already on her way for a skeletal scan, as per Riley's recommendations.

Girls have a 37% higher risk than boys when it comes to x-rays. They are more prone to develop cancer or experience damaging effects. I was already aware of this because when Ember was born she had a subdermal hemangioma, and while x-rays and other imaging would have been helpful, they were not recommended until a much later age.

Confused and distressed don't even touch the way I felt when they told me she was coming. I had not been told anything about it needing to be done. I had no idea she was on her way. The caseworker would later inform me at our home visit that it was a mistake for her to be coming without my knowledge, and that she had assumed Riley would have informed me of the situation. Well, they didn't.

While we were outside (because I was sobbing, I was a mess, they were taking my kids away and there was nothing I could do to stop them, in my mind), a woman told me that I needed to think like a tree and plant my feet somewhere and fight the storm from there. I appreciated this advice, and I have thought of it daily since I spoke to her. She told me that worse case scenario, my kids would go to my parents, and I would get them back later. That is a pretty bad worse case scenario, but it was one that I could fight if I could just figure out where to plant my feet.

After Ember's scan came back with no signs of fractures (duh?), we were allowed to bring Riddick home. CPS made a follow-up visit about a week later, and she said that everything looked good and the kids seemed happy and comfortable. She said we'd receive papers in 30 days, and that nothing else was needed from us.

What angers me most is that the hospital seemed more concerned about abuse than they did about my son. They were less than willing to perform testing to check for bone diseases or bone fragility. They questioned us for 45 minutes before administering any pain medicine to him. When we wanted to speak to a doctor, there were none to be found, but when a doctor wanted to question us about abuse they wouldn't go away.

I understand the need for procedures such as this. I understand that if they only save one child from an abusive home, that it may be worth it to put families through the stress that they do. I just feel that they should not have such little respect for parents of children with fractures that they cannot even inform them of the policy, or that they treat them badly because they assume that abuse has occurred. My husband was told by more than one doctor that they would "find out the truth about what really happened."

Imagine the stress of your seven month old having a broken bone. Multiply that by the stress of being told you had to have done it on purpose, and your other children being brought in for x-rays for no medical purpose whatsoever. It truly was Hell for me. I did not think I would make it through it, but I did. We all did.