This article addresses information that covers the repercussions of the incident discussed, link here >
Make sure you read the first article before you read this one. Link here >
Child abuse pediatricians are a sub-specialty of doctors who are working more and more frequently alongside other medical professionals and child protective services, where they are supposed to help ensure all children are correctly diagnosed and, if abuse is present, to protect the children. They have a difficult job to correctly diagnose a child’s medical condition, and then determine the cause behind it, assessing whether it was a result of child abuse or not. These doctors are supposed to save children from dangerous situations and often do successfully rescue children from situations that could have lead to more abuse without their intervention. Yet, there is a huge and increasingly problematic abuse, not of the child, but of the power and influence of doctors who are predisposed to find abuse, even if the facts do not support such a finding. When the medical diagnoses are incorrect and the doctor erroneously claims that children’s medical conditions were due to child abuse, when they in fact were not, the children are hurt and the families devastated. These incorrect and false child abuse allegations have resulted in parents losing custody of their children and tearing families apart. In many cases now, parents are beginning to fight back and also calling for reforms to prevent further erroneous child abuse accusations.
In too many cases (and one incorrect diagnosis is too many just as one incorrect failure to identify child abuse is too many), the “child abuse” pediatricians’ medical evaluations are given greater weight and importance over other medical evaluations by Child Protective Services, who are empowered to act often without any early judicial scrutiny or accountability. Because “child abuse” pediatricians are consciously or subconsciously biased to find abuse (even when not present), due in great part to continually working closely with child protective services, the truth is not the common goal of the medical community, the Child Protective Services, and the parents. The court system and other parts of government have begun to address this growing epidemic of erroneous child abuse allegations and are currently working to find solutions to this problem. Of course, one procedure to help ensure accuracy is for an injured child to receive a second medical workup by a doctor or medical team not predisposed to find abuse. Whatever the solution, it is imperative that the system does improve – too many children and their families have suffered tragically due to mistaken child abuse allegations. But just as innocent parents fight back in order to protect their children and their families, the court system and state all too often hold on to the claim that, even if there are erroneous allegations of child abuse, that is the cost of trying to save children. Balance is the key, of course – obtaining much more accurate medical diagnoses by child abuse pediatricians that successfully save children from actual, dangerous situations and clear innocent parents from incorrect allegations of abuse that otherwise would tear families apart.
To learn more about incidents of mistaken child abuse allegations and the parents who are fighting back, read the article here >
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