The doctor walked into the room and took a seat on the lid of a red trash can. Your baby has bleeding in his brain, he told Gabe and Zahava Edery, and there are broken bones, too.
They were stunned.
✏️@ByEdMcKinley
➡️houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
They were stunned.
✏️@ByEdMcKinley
➡️houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
The Ederys had taken their 3-month old son Mickey to the hospital that evening after he grew unresponsive following a family trip to synagogue. It was the Sabbath, a family day, and the couple and their three children had spent it together. ⬇️houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
The combination of the initial diagnoses —
📋the brain bleed,
📋plus fractured ribs,
📋plus a retinal hemorrhage
— made the doctors think the child was a victim of “shaken baby syndrome,” which kills between 1,000 and 3,000 children each year. ⬇️houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
📋the brain bleed,
📋plus fractured ribs,
📋plus a retinal hemorrhage
— made the doctors think the child was a victim of “shaken baby syndrome,” which kills between 1,000 and 3,000 children each year. ⬇️houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
Child Protective Services got involved, and a social worker directed Gabe to bring their other 2 kids in.
A specialist classified Mickey’s injuries as potentially stemming from abuse. All 3 kids were taken from the Edery’s and placed into foster care ⬇️houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
A specialist classified Mickey’s injuries as potentially stemming from abuse. All 3 kids were taken from the Edery’s and placed into foster care ⬇️houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
Within days, the hospital walked-back the diagnosis of broken bones, saying the only injury was the brain bleed. This weakened the case for abuse, but that didn’t change the state’s response. ⬇️houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
Proving that they did not cause Mickey’s injury to the satisfaction of CPS and an appointed guardian ad litem took seven months. Their twin boys have now spent more of their lives outside their parents’ home than in it.
➡️houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
➡️houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
The Ederys hired 4 pediatric neurology experts to examine the evidence. The doctors concluded that Mickey, a twin born prematurely, had slight head trauma from delivery that caused a fluid buildup inside his skull that ultimately caused the brain bleed.
➡️houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
➡️houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
A new state law that went into effect - two months after Mickey’s injury — was too late to help the Ederys, but it promises new resources to Texas parents who find themselves in a similar predicament in the future. ⬇️houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
The law change was prompted by a 2019 investigation by the @HoustonChron and @NBCNews of 40 cases in which the conclusions of state child abuse specialists were questioned. ⬇️houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
🗣️@RepJamesFrank “The challenge is once the system is involved, it’s pretty much nine months to get back even if you're wrong. I don’t know if I can ever remember a case where somebody recognized after a week they’re wrong.” ⬇️houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
Yet even critics acknowledge that the abuse specialists’ conclusions are likely correct most of the time, particularly when children have suffered extensive unexplained injuries. ⬇️ houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
Still, Frank said if they see certain symptoms, like a brain bleed: “They’re a hammer and everything looks like a nail.” ⬇️houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
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