I'll make this short though the paperwork on our current nightmare is running close to 175 pages and counting.
Long story short:
My son was driving, I was in the seat next to him, his 6 month old son was in his car seat behind me facing the rear of the car. We went around a curve and the door next to the baby flew open. Instinctively my son did 3 things: 1) put his foot on the brake and try to brake fast while not skidding out of control, 2) kept his left hand on the steering wheel, and 3) instantaneously reached for his son with his right hand in order to pull him from the open door. As he pulled the baby away from the opening he felt something 'pop.' That pop could have happened anywhere on the arm and not specifically under his hand.
Our pediatrician believes what we said happened but was required to notify CPS. Actually a doctor in his clinic (Dr. F) 'offered' to call for him. When he did, even though he hadn't examined our little guy, and even though he hadn't talked to us or heard firsthand what happened, he reported it as definite child abuse saying the injury didn't coincide with the story we told.
The characters:
Dr. P = Our pediatrician (he owns the clinic),in his 50's
Dr. F = Another doctor in the clinic, in his 30's
Dr. D = CPS's doctor
Important to note: Dr. P, our pediatrician, examined my Grandson and spoke with us about how the accident happened. Dr. F NEVER did either!!
<> CPS had their doctor assess the case. She talked extensively with Dr. F and they both agreed it was child abuse done by my son.
<>Our pediatrician called and told CPS he believed it was NOT abuse and he wanted to attend the CPT meeting also.
<>Despite our pediatrician's support, our baby was put into foster care with a woman who left him in daycare all day while she worked.
<>Copies of the records we've gotten through our attorney from CPS are filled with lies, untruths, conversations that never took place, on dates when it was a weekend and my son was at his National Guard weekend and the Mother was at her Army Reserves weekend so it couldn't have taken place, and so much more.
<>Dr. F ordered full skeletal x-rays taken and then said he could see old rib fractures from when my Grandson was 2 months old, though faint.
<>Dr. D (the CPS doctor) said the skeletal x-rays were clear and showed nothing except the injured arm.
This has been going on for about 2+ months now. Perhaps the nightmare has just begun.
I simply want to know if anyone knows of any cases where an infant had a spiral fracture and it was ultimately deemed accidental.
In the case of my Grandson: My son grabbed to save him instinctively. He doesn't remember if he grasped his arm, his leg, his shoulder, etc. In that the arm was injured, we assume that's what he grasped. That being the case, when he grasped him was the baby's arm by his side? Scratching his head? In his mouth? Grabbing his shoe? Scratching his tummy? And did my son grasp him with his thumb facing the baby's thumb, or facing his shoulder? We just don't know. It would make a differene if the baby was scratching his head, grabbing his shoe, or flailing off to the side as we went around the corner. Right? Plus as my son pulled the baby away from the open door he met resistance because the baby was buckled in. And when he pulled the baby away from the open door he had to bend his arm and pull. It seems to me that could then twist somehow.
But here's what Dr. D said in her assessment sent to the CHILD ABUSE INTERVENTION DEPARTMENT:
'This history of trauma to the arm seems implausible. The fracture to the humerus requires some force and usually some distraction off midline or torsion to the bone. The dad is very unclear of how he might have grabbed the baby that day. Most infants are tightly placed in their car seats and their arms would nt be the first thing one would grab if trying to stabilize the car seat....I am very concerned that the baby is not safe in the care of his father.'
And here's what I have to say about that:
My son didn't give a hoot about saving the car seat. After all, in that the door was shut and yet it flew open, perhaps the baby could have come unbuckled even though he'd been buckled in. There would have been precious little consolation to have saved the car seat though the baby flew out the open door. (Duh!!)
Another thing: I don't know how many babies in car seats you've handled but they play in their seat, often with a toy they've been given. They squeal in delight and clap their hands. And this I know -- a baby in a car seat has plenty of room to move his arms and legs around!!! After all, it's ONLY THE TORSO that's strapped in.
I thank God the Mother and Father aren't at odds with each other. If they were, I'll bet my son would be found guilty no matter what we did or said. That's because she'd be bitter and saying biased and exaggerated things, if not lies about him.
As for me? Well I had 2 sons and adopted 4 daughters from Asia. The last two adopted were 10 and 15 years old. One had parents who were lepers and the other's Mother was in and out of a mental hospital. (These children were chosen by me at orphanages I visited.)
I visited over 70 orphanages in one city alone. I worked extensively with orphans, street children, children of prostitutes and lepers, and found American adoptive families for 104 children.
I received national recognition for the philanthropic work I did with the orphans and underprivileged children of that nation. My picture was on the front page of every newspaper in the nation and everywhere I went, people recognized me and whispered my name.
While waiting at a street corner downtown one day an old, weathered woman who'd been waiting there also came up to me, looked very close into my face and asked questioningly in her native tongue, 'Orpahange Mother?'
To which I replied in her language, 'You betcha.'
It's ironic because it has now been deemed unsafe by CPS for my Grandson to be left alone with me.
<>Tell that to the 3 year old dwarf, Tae-Ho, that I found an adoptive home for. It was with Margaret, a single American of 42 who worked for the Corps of Engineers...and was a dwarf herself.
<>Tell that to the 16 year old girl who'd run away from the abusive family she'd lived with where she'd been their servant since she was 5. They called her Bok-Dong, which was a boy's name and I told her she needed a girl's name. That's the day she became Jenny, which is similar to the name Jin-Hee. She lived with my family for 6 months until my friend, Father Ben Zweber, found an adoptive family for her in the US. And imagine: this girl had NEVER attended school a day in her life!
Regarding Father Ben: http://www.akconnection.com/webcal/webC ... view=month
<>Tell that to the street children I'd find up on Hooker Hill. Father Ben had told me he'd take any street children I found. My first group consisted of 4 boys 11-13. They'd buy gum for W100 and sell it for W200 to the GI's at the bars. One who'd been on the streets the longest was, a year later, being adopted by a millionaire in Alaska who had 18 adopted Korean children.
<>Tell that to Kyung-Sook, 3 years old, who had polio. Her Father didn't want her so he gave her to me. We nicknamed her Cookie. Father Ben also placed her after she'd lived with us for 11 months.
<>Tell that to the little 3 year old Amerasian boy with the massive afro whose Mother had died and he'd been taken in by a neighbor. A year later when I met him he had a debt of $1,000 he had to pay in order to be freed for adoption. A woman in the US had somehow heard about me and my work in that country, which she was visiting. She'd come with $540 to be used for the orphans somehow, perhaps for winter gloves or socks. That was money she'd asked people to donate instead of flowers when her husband died. I took her to meet the woman wish cash in hand. The woman was convinced to accept the money and the toddler with the massive afro was taken in by Father Ben and placed with an adoptive family in the US.
<>Tell it to Mrs. Kang, a woman whose elderly Mother was going to the ocean with her Grandchildren 1 and 3. She was going to take them all into the ocean to die because their future was so bleak. Mrs. Kang told her Mother about an article she'd read about me and asked that she give her a chance to contact me and see if I could help. She got my number from the newspaper and called me that day. I visited the Grandmother that afternoon and by 9:45 PM had an adoptive family for the girls...an Army pilot and his wife who was a nurse. Grandmother had gotten the girls from their Mother who'd become a prostitute when her husband, Grandmother's son, died in a motorcycle accident. The future had looked so bleak but now they were all so happy, with Grandmother's last surviving son calling the adoptive Father his American Brother, and the prostitute Mother really liking both parents (though she didn't want to at first), and Grandmother was unbelievably happy. I suggested they all go down that day and have a professional picture taken of them for the girls. That way the children would know both families worked together to create the best possible future for the girls. They did just that.
<>Tell it to the last 3 children I found an adoptive family for. Their Father and Grandmother lived in Lazarus Village, a leper colony. That's where they would have grown up if they hadn't been adopted. They were adopted by a single American woman who taught at the DODDS schools overseas. And long after the girls were adopted they were still able to visit their biological Father and Grandmother because she remained there teaching for some years afterwards.
<>Tell that to Mee-Kyung, a 16 year old girl in Eternal Life Christian Children's Home. The woke up one morning to find 7 boys dead from carbon monoxide poisoning due to their heating. One was Mee-Kyung's brother. What did she do? In a city of 8 million people, who did she call? She called me and when I answered she said, 'Mommy, Sang-Hung is dead.' I brought her to my home that weekend, took her to church with us on Sunday, stood and introduced her and the situation...and ultimatly a church member adopted her even though she was legally too old to adopt by American law. She's now Tammy living in southern California. Two years ago she and her husband bought a $550K home.
<>Tell that to the two 16 year old boys named Lee, Choul and Chun, Hyung-Shik. I met them in the orphanage they'd lived their entire lives in and befriended them. In our home they finally found a family where they felt they belonged. I told them they never had to call before coming over; that they were AWAYS WELCOME. Though Asian men are not raised to be outwardly affectionate, these boys would come up to me, put their arm around my neck, kiss me on the cheek and whisper in my ear, 'I love my Mom!!'
And CPS says my precious Grandson isn't safe with me?
It is the supreme insult!!
There's an expression I've heard from time to time but never used. (It's not lady like.) But right now it seems appropriate.
CPS...bite me!!!
Regards to you all...Brook
The Evergreen State
and send me home in excurigating pain.
Cottenmouth a VERY PO old man
but are not giving up without a fight.Thank you anyone for your help.