Care Proceedings – when hospitals get things wrong

[WSCC2019]

I posted on here back in November/December of last year explaining the situation I found myself in and asked for advice. My wife and I had taken our almost 14-month old little boy to A&E to get his foot looked at as he was holding it a lot. What happened then stunned us both. The hospital alleged that he had fractures in both legs, two fractured ribs and possibly a fractured arm. We explained that he had had a tumble down our stairs in October but that he was his usual happy self and there had been no signs of bruising, swelling, deformity etc and there was no way he had such injuries. Unfortunately, I was shot down in flames on here with comments by people telling me to look at myself and question how these injuries happened.

My wife and I were accused, arrested, thrown in cells, interrogated, our house searched, possessions seized and son and daughter were taken from us by Social Services for a total of 15-weeks. We both have good jobs. My wife is a fully qualified CRB-checked teacher and we have both done childminding for several people.

Anyway, after being spoken to and treated like the scum of the earth and only being allowed to see our children three times a week under supervision we arranged for an independent expert to examine our son’s x-rays. He reported back that he could not see any fractures whatsoever. Then, the court-appointed expert reported that there were no fractures of the ribs, of the arm or the right leg. All there was, was an incredibly small “toddler fracture” of his left-leg which he said our son may have hurt during his fall down the stairs or, it was reported, he may have done it himself as toddlers sometimes fracture bones themselves standing and twisting. The expert was unequivocal in that there was no suggestion of child abuse.

My wife and I had to attend court on five occasions and the Judge urged the Local Authority to withdraw from Care Proceedings in March which they did. The NHS, GMC and Local Authority/Social Services are now fobbing us off and are being as unhelpful as they can as we seek answers and a multi-agency review.

Incidentally, although I shall not name the hospital, doctor or Local Authority which all got things so terribly wrong, all I will say is my County Council were graded as ‘INADEQUATE’ in every category of Children’s Services only a couple of months ago which made the news.

Has anyone else been through anything similar? I would be keen to know.

Great that the truth is out. Presumably something showed up on the original x rays that was misinterpreted. Just because your wife is a teacher doesn't mean abuse cannot have taken place, it's right that they err on the side of caution when it comes to a toddler that cannot speak for themselves

Personally I'd let it go and enjoy being a family again. You've already lost precious months, playing the blame game will.lise you more.

Also I would wonder why an under 1 year old hadn't seen a medic after tumbling down the stairs

I'm not sure what went wrong other than the hospital's reading of the initial x-rays?
It sounds as though everyone else followed procedures.
The court appointed expert gave the view that there was only one untreated fracture and not multiple fractures.
The proceedings were dropped and dc have been returned to your family.
Your focus needs to be on procedures at the initial X-ray reading and what went wrong there.
I can't imagine how stressful this must have been for your family.
You do need to understand however that middle class crb checked people can be abusing dc and also lie about it.

We deal with a lot of non accidental injuries. And I know that doctors will not declare an NAI if they aren't sure and the x rays are reviewed by several consultants, so I'm
Not sure how this has happened. It's not just about x Ray findings. It's the whole picture. Eg, previous neglect, delay in presentations, conflicting stories etc. Unfortunately parents do hurt their children. (Not saying you have)

Unsure why the fact you both have 'good jobs' are relevant to this story.

@RedHelenB - thank you, although our son had his stairs tumble the day after he turned 1. We checked him, kept an eye on him and he was fine. We also asked his Childminder for her opinion and the church leader of one of his play groups and they both agreed he seemed absolutely fine. We have loads of of photos and videos of him in the days/weeks after his tumble and he seemed fine and his usual self.

I do appreciate that child abusers can come from any walk of life - I just wanted to demonstrate that we both work (i.e. we not unemployed - and the jobs we have are good jobs, that was all).

@pumkinspicetime - this is what else went wrong here; the hospital got lots of facts wrong and twisted virtually everything we told them when we brought him in. The NHS's legal dept sent us documents and had our son's name wrong (not just a typo - totally wrong), wrong DOB and WRONG x-ray dates. We were even asking if they had x-ray'd the right baby.

Social Services made just as many mistakes and even sent us documents relating to another family which included names, addresses, phone numbers, DOB's, GP details etc. We were at our wits' end and felt as though no one would listen to us. The system has so many flaws. Perhaps if this had happened to you, would would feel as angry as we do.

Have you made a formal complaint to the hospital and ss? That is your first step in getting answers. Your LA will have a complaints section on their website or a leaflet with contact info and you can contact your hospital PALs. My story is very different in that I was never accused of any wrong doing but hospital negligence led to the near death of my newborn baby so I really do understand how it feels to be let down by services. I complained formally via pals, firstly by letter setting out my version of events and asking questions along the way. You have 3yrs from the incident to complaint. I found it really helpful in clarifying exactly where things went wrong and why. I believe the hospital have still fobbed us off so we have found a solicitor to start legal proceedings but I unless you raise your grievance those agencies cant learn. I found individual and couples counselling also helped as we felt huge guilt and shame for what had happened despite it not being our fault.

@blackcat86 - Yes, we have made formal complaints to the NHS and Social Services/LA. The hospital made lots of errors including informing the Police initially that our son was 13-weeks old when he was in fact 13-months old. PALs initially contacted us but were just trying to fob us off. We actually have a multi-agency meeting this week that we initiated. The LA are attending and so are two people high up at the NHS, one of whom is the manager of the Safeguarding Doctor who triggered all this (who, incidentally, had only been in their role as Head of Safeguarding for 4-months when they started this).

The LA have sent us a report and have told us a complete pack of lies about how they handled several aspects of the case and we intend to prove they are lying at our meeting this week. With some of the more serious complaints we have with them their standard response is along the lines of 'that individual has now left Social Services...' and therefore they brush it under the carpet. Our local MP has been very helpful in all of this.

What makes us really angry is that there were so many indicators that this was all wrong. We were the ones who brought our son in to get looked at. Neither of us were known to Social Services and neither of us had ever been in trouble with the law before. We both work. We complied with everything with the hospital, Social Services and the Police, yet we were still treated as though we were guilty until proven innocent. Thankfully, there were some people involved who applied common sense, the main one being the Judge who commented on 'the raft of positive feedback about the parents' and one of the Social Workers who was fantastic and actually listened to us - unlike most people.

It's good that you've already complained. We actually had a similar response of complete lies and changes the timeline to the point we sent time stamped photos (because fortunately people photograph their newborn a lot!) Showing where we were and what times thing happened. Equally the specialist c section midwife appears to have done no wrong in their eyes and yet has shuffled off to a community role. Very suspect. Kept referring consistently back to your timeline and pointing out their inconsistencies with evidence. I also found it helpful to consider what you want. Is it a heartfelt apology, change, staff disciplined or retrained? I guess my frustration is they appeared to discipline everyone around the midwife who actually caused the harm but she just wandered off to a new role. Remember also that doctors and social workers (actual social workers rather than resource officers) are part of regulated registered bodies so I would be looking to inform them myself of what has happened including associated evidence. Good luck with your meeting

@Newtothis213

Unsure why the fact you both have 'good jobs' are relevant to this story

Are you an idiot? After everything the OP posted and went through, this is all you have to say? Talk about nit picking - I’ll explain it for you in simple terms the OP was making the point that because of their jobs they’d both been DBS checked (I’m assuming you know what that means..)

So despite being wrongly accused and having their children taken off them the only thing you’re gunna comment on is the fact he mentioned they both have good jobs?

OP you absolutely should complain and try and establish what went wrong and why.

But you should try and separate out the idea that your status in life means that you automatically should have been ruled out of hurting your DC. There is nothing in being middle class, having jobs, having no record with the police, having police checks, complying with professionals and seeking medical care for you DC which would been that you could not have hurt your DC.

Social worker training also is clear than common sense is a terrible way of judging situations, not least because of the personal bias that can run amok in that situation. Considered assessment is the most effective way to try and sort wheat from chaff. That said social workers will accept a clear diagnosis of NAI so I would focus your complaint on this firstly.

@blackcat86 - we are having these meetings for a few reasons; we believe that much of what was reported/documented by the hospital and Social Services at the start was categorically wrong (blatant lies I informed my solicitor - she said they were 'misunderstandings' or 'miscommunications'). We were set for a 5-day Fact Finding Hearing in April/May which never happened due to the LA being urged to withdrew, which they did, and as a result we did not get an opportunity to set the record straight on these matters.

We also want to see changes made to procedures so that other families do not have to go through what we did. Lastly, we would like some kind of apology and to be compensated where we are out of pocket. It's not a huge amount of money, but all the taxi fares (neither wife or I drive), train fares and other bits and pieces all add up.

Finally, just to clear things up about the pair of us 'having good jobs'; we both fully understand that abusers can be anyone. I am highlighting the fact that we have jobs because many people involved with Social Services seemed surprised that we worked and could not just meet them at the drop of a hat. They seemed to think they would click their fingers and we would just appear.

Something else I would like to add; because our son spent two days a week at a childminder's and one day with my Mum, they were both in the horrific phrase: 'pool of perpetrators'. However, despite the Police interviewing my wife and I immediately, it took them about seven weeks to speak to my Mum and the childminder. No one seemed interested in them.

The childminder phoned Ofsted at the very start of this to ask what she should do and she told us 'they didn't seem interested...' She was allowed to carry on working until three into it when she received a phone call from someone at Social Services at 2:30pm one afternoon in a frenzied panic informing her she had been suspended due to safeguarding concerns and that any children currently with her must be collected immediately. Yet another mistake made in this fiasco. Why was this not done at the very beginning?

The childminder was so upset by the whole thing that, after 12-years in her job, she quit.

@RRJR if I were an idiot I would waste my time writing a lengthy reply to your rude comment but I have better things to do with my time. Now toddle on. Thanks.