The doctor closed the curtains around the hospital bed before giving Chloe Rhodes the news. There was a reason her baby wouldn’t stop screaming. Not only did she have a fractured leg, she also had a fractured collarbone – and there was no explanation for her injuries.
Chloe first took her daughter, Autumn Stephenson to hospital in January 2021 after noticing she wasn’t crawling properly. Then just one, Autumn was dragging her feet and cried whenever she had a nappy change.
But the family’s nightmare was only just beginning. Due to the seriousness of Autumn’s injuries, the hospital needed to report their findings to social services. Chloe, 23, was no longer allowed to care for her children alone – leaving her baffled and devastated.
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Autumn, now aged two, remained in hospital for several days while medics carried out child protection tests. As Chloe needed to be supervised around her children at all times, her mother and sister moved into her home to care for Autumn and her three-year-old brother, Oliver.
It took six long months for the family to find out what had really happened to Autumn. And throughout that time, Chloe was regularly visited by social services.
She knew she had done nothing wrong. “While you’re trying to adjust to everything that’s going on around you, you now have to prove yourself to social services," Chloe, from Oldham, told the Manchester Evening News. "You have to try and prove you’re innocent and fight against them while trying to soak up this new life.”
It was in July 2021 that the family finally got the breakthrough they had been waiting for. Autumn was not being abused – she had an extremely rare condition.
Called Osteogenesis Imperfecta – or brittle bone disease – the condition means Autumn's bones are soft and break easily. The news was too overwhelming for Chloe to feel much relief.
“I ended up really depressed,” Chloe said. “Not only did I have to accept my daughter had a condition for life, to see my daughter in pain, I was on edge all the time. Any little fall, any little bump, I was panicking."
Even before Autumn's fractures were first discovered there were signs that something wasn't quite right with her health. Back in January 2020, when Autumn was four-months-old, Chloe noticed she was not growing properly. And when the tot vomited for nine days straight, Chloe took her to A&E.
While in hospital, doctors noticed the whites of Autumn's eyes were blue. She also had an arched palette in the roof of her mouth. Due to both symptoms being indicators of brittle bone disease, Chloe believes safeguarding procedures could have been avoided if Autumn had been diagnosed earlier.
“It’s just been crazy,” Chloe added. “Because of how little awareness there is, not many people know about the condition. “Things got out of hand. Things could have been a whole lot different had the local hospital known about the condition and had awareness of it.
“We wouldn’t have had to wait months for them to admit it wasn’t an accidental fracture or having to be supervised with the kids for as long as we did because there was a lot of evidence pointing to a medical condition.
“We were referred a year before we were even suspected of abuse. It’s not like it was anything surprising to them, but obviously we had to do safeguarding. My mum and sister had to move in and take turns looking after the children. My mum had to work from home; it just changed everything.
“We got lucky because a lot of families get children removed and placed into foster care. It’s not nice to be accused or even being suspected of abusing your kids. It’s weird to think I’m saying I’m lucky, I wasn’t but I’m luckier than some of the other situations other families have found themselves in.”
So far, Autumn has fractured her leg three times, her clavicle, her collarbone, her finger twice and her toe – but her family fear the number of injuries could be much greater. While she is able to live life as a normal child, Chloe says she is not allowed on bouncy castle or trampolines and has to be watched at all times.
“When the genetic testing was done and the results came back in July confirming she did have the condition, social services backed off,” Chloe added. “When people hear you have to be supervised with your kids, when they find out your kid has multiple fractures and don’t know anything, they start to get judgemental. People just automatically think you must have hurt your kids. It was a lot to take in when you’re already having a rubbish time.
“We just take every day as it comes. Most of the time she’s just really happy – singing and chatting away to everything. Even when she broke her leg this year, she was still making everyone laugh while she was in the hospital. She’s really resilient.”
Chloe climbed Snowdon earlier this month to fundraise for the Brittle Bones Society, a charity which has helped the family in recent years. Chloe was accompanied by mum, Sarah Hoy, stepdad, Darren Hoy, sister Emma Rhodes and family friends, Kirsty Kendrick and Alan Farmer.
The hike took the team six and a half hours to complete and has so far raised £750 on Justgiving. To donate, follow the link by clicking here.
Cllr Eddie Moores, Oldham Council's Cabinet Member Children & Young People, said: "We sympathise fully with the family and are pleased Autumn's condition has now been recognised.
"We take safeguarding extremely seriously. Our staff are absolutely committed to keeping our young people safe - we cannot take chances where children's lives are at risk.
"We wish Autumn and her family well for the future."
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