ITP not Child Abuse

Please someone help me help my grand daughter!!! This past saturday my daughter called me up and she was frantic about her 5 month old daughter who woke up with bruises on her body,(chest, stomach, legs, around her eyes, and one bruise on the inside of her palm.)I really thought my daughter was thinking that my grand daughter has a rash of some sort but she was insisting that it was bruising and still was thinking it was just a rash. I called my other daughter and told her what my other daughter described to me and she said she was going over there to. We ended there about the same time and we were both in shock at what we seen, my grand baby bruised just like my daughter had told me on the phone. I told them to get her to the ER at CHKD and they did. As soon as they got there the doctor immediatly said it was child abuse and they were going to call a social worker and they did. They think my daughter and Savannahs dad abused her but I know that didn't. So child protective services has decided for Savannah to be placed with me until a further investigation has been done. This has been the most awfulest experience my family has been through. I just need to know if anybody else has went thru being of excuse for child abuse and if so what did you do to prove your innocence and that they were mistaken?

Please tell me anything that might help me - pictures, documented cases, or anything you can think of.

"Thanks GiGi.

Oh, no, that's terrible, I'm so sorry you and your family are going through this, has Savannah been disagnosed with ITP yet, have they done any blood tests etc?? Sounds like they may not have done any tests or know about ITP, if the doctors and nurses already knew she had it or did tests that showed she had a lowered platelet count, they may not have been so quick to jump to that conclusion. I would ask for a second opinion and ask for your grandaughter to have some blood tests taken to see what her platelet count is, if it hasn't already been done.

When i was younger and had lots of bruises, my mum used to get looks from people when she used to take me places, the police even once sat down when we were having lunch one day and casually talked to mum, but nobody actually took me away from my parents, i wish i could give u some advise on what to do, it would be such a devastating situation to be in.

Your family is in my thoughts and i hope everything works out well for you all.

Thats a dreadful position to be in for you and your family.

When my son was first diagnosed, the doctors questioned him very closely about how his bruises had happened, and it was clear to me that they were considering child abuse as a possibility. I was quite upset by it, but have since spoken to his paediatrician and he points out (quite rightly) that we would all be up in arms if they missed a case of abuse. I was lucky that at 11 years old, my son could speak for himself.

Hope that you sort it out soon anyway. Ali

It is amazing how the Dr would bypass the fact that there could be something medically wrong with her. I know that ITP is rare or at least rarely diagnoised, but it's very sad to think that the only thing that went through a Drs mind was child abuse.

We were very lucky to have a wonderful Dr who instantly thought ITP....when Devyn was diadnoised he only had one bruise on his chest and the only reason he did a blood test was because i told him that i was worried that Devyn bruised so easily. I had never heard of ITP but Devyns Dr had a bout with it when he was 28 so he was able to educate us on what it was all about.

I would definitly get a second opinion and get some bloodwork done to see if her platelets are low. Definitly keep us posted and i'm so sorry that you and you family have to go through all of this

Deanna

The night my son was diagnosed (after a week of increasingly severe bruising), we took him to our local ER, where they did a blood test and talked to our pediatrician about whether we had ever brought in any of our kids for similar bruising.

In other words, they did what was medically required and what was legally required to rule out child abuse. His platelet count was extremely low (7,000), the problem was clearly medical, and no one ever came close to taking our son from us.

Have they gotten a count yet? If her count is very low, she could be in danger. That needs to be the first order of business.

A child who wakes up with unexplained bruises (like mine did when her ITP started) should have a CBC to count platelets AND to rule out leukemia. We'd never heard of ITP before, but my husband, who was then a brand-new nurse, wanted a CBC because he feared leukemia. Yes, the doctor has to question abuse, but he also needs to work up his patient. Has a CBC been done? Got any counts?
Norma

This is absolutely terrible and I feel terrible to say that they are just doing there job. I suspect by now that you should have the blood tests back,as the child was not kept in hospital it makes me think that maybe they didn't wait for the tests to come back,my sons are back within two hours. If you have not heard anything I would get in touch with the childs health visitor or equilavent, maybe getting your gp on board would help. My first worry when I took my son to see the dr was would they think child abuse but I put that behind me as I knew his markings weren't right. I was lucky because that never came up. My mother had itp from 5yrs until 9yrs when she had a splenectomy. This was in the early 50's and she told me that the police often where at my grandads door after complaints from other people about the bruising. Hold tight and be glad that the child is still within the family, there are many more knowledgable folk than me on this sight so read as much as possible so you will have the knowledge to ask the right questions.

Much love,
Nadia.

hi, my son liams creche had asked us if we has seen the bruises on liam!!! we told the that we did and that he was undergoing some tests and we would tell them the results when we got them,lucky for us we had a good relationship with the staff as our other boys had gone there. The next week we asked our doctor and heamo to write a medical certificate and gave it to them,our heamo also told us that people might question us re the bruising and to be prepared. jenny

This could have a very simple solution. A simple blood test (CBC), including platelets, can be done. If her platelets are low, there is the answer. I can't believe the ER doctor would not have done that first (although I'm not a big fan of most ER doctors).

Good luck to you.

A few years ago there was someone on this board whose child or grandchild (can't remember) had ITP and was taken away because they were accused of child abuse. I don't know the outcome of the case, but it was a tough one. I'm surprised they didn't do a CBC to find out a platelet count.
I took my son to his pediatrician's office. If they suspected abuse (the peds), they never mentioned it, but they immediately did a cbc and his counts came back very low. One nurse did give me a horrible look when she saw a handprint on his back where I had been holding him still for the blood draw. In those days, his bedsheets would give him bruises from the wrinkles! He also presented by waking up with bruises everywhere. They were concerned with leukemia, but we have a family trait of chronic ITP, so I kind of knew what was going on.

Let us know what is going on.

Did they do a CBC? If not, I would get one done asap. If it came back with low platelets, I'd be having discussions with the head of DCF, the hospital ombudsmon, AND my state representatives. If a child came in with those symptoms it ended up being ITP and they didn't do a CBC, we'd be having talks. Lots of them.

When C started showing bruising on a Saturday, I wanted until Monday to take her in - I was afraid urgent care would think I was beating her. (11k count, so she looked bad!)
The ped said no way, that any doctor would have looked at her, seen her petechie and bruising, done a CBC and immediately realized it was a platelet issue.

Good luck. That's good that you're able to take her in and help out while this gets cleared up.