A family has claimed that their six-month-old baby was taken from them and put into care for 26 days after a hospital scan was misread. The baby parents allege they took their son, who was born premature to Royal Gwent Hospital in Wales, to have him checked out after he had thrown himself down while they were changing him and accidentally bumped his head.
After the baby was taken for a CT scan, the family claims they were told by doctors that they were concerned about the results which displayed a mark on his leg and another on his ribcage, WalesOnline reports. The boy's parents, who wish not to be named, told BBC Wales they were told that in order to keep their parental rights, their son would have to placed into care.
Social services were informed about the situation and their son was taken away for nearly a month and put into foster care. The baby's mum told the BBC: "I was in the bath, and my husband was dressing him.
''He has never liked getting dressed, he is three now and still doesn't like it. That night, he had a bit of a tantrum and threw himself back, which led him to having a bump on the head.
''I was breastfeeding him and noticed there was a bit of a swelling. We phoned NHS Direct, and they said to take him to the hospital to get him checked out.
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"We knew he hadn't been hurt, but wanted to get him checked out because he had been born premature." At the hospital, the baby was given a full skeletal scan, lood tests and a retina test.
The skeletal survey, involved 30 X-rays, and the family say there were told there were concerns about a mark on his leg and on one of his ribs. His mum said: "They thought it was an old injury on his leg and something on his rib and we wanted to know why.
''I'd never left him, apart from two hours with my mum, since I'd had him. He belonged next to me. It felt like he died when we left the hospital without him.
''I felt like I was being punished. It was horrible. I was told not to pack any clothes for him as the foster carer would have everything.
"As it was I insisted on him wearing his clothes, I wanted it to be food I had provided, I wanted him to stay on my milk so we hired a pump."
For the next three weeks, they had to see their son at a contact centre in Newport, as they waited for a second scan to take place. "We had to sign a document saying things like we wouldn't turn up drunk, we wouldn't hurt our child when we were there, we wouldn't be abusive to the contact worker, we wouldn't be doing drugs there, we wouldn't take alcohol in," the mum said.
"It was a different world. This wasn't something we were part of." The family say that the radiologist said that nothing showed up on the rib in the second set of X-rays, and were told it must have been a shadow, and were told there was nothing on the leg either.
The scans were sent to specialist in Cardiff, who was trained in looking at the bones of infants, and the baby's mum said the results found, "there was no abnormality. It said he was absolutely fine for his age."
"We were told the reason he was taken from us was because of the rib and the leg, and that if it had just been the head we would have been sent home," she told BBC Radio Wales. "It would have been an accident.
''If the specialist had been involved in the first set of X-rays, to us, we wouldn't have gone through it all. I wouldn't have lost my baby for a month."
It is claimed that social services said they would not act until they had seen a hard copy of the report, and wanted to speak to the consultant who wrote the report, so it took longer for their baby to be returned. They say it was a week before the family were reunited, and a child protection meeting agreed that the baby did not need to go on the register.
The family say they did not lodge a complaint at the time because they wanted to put the whole experience behind them. but they got in touch with the BBC after reading about another family's experience. Newport Council has said that it cannot comment on individual cases, but added: "No child is taken into care without careful consideration of all the circumstances and such complex decisions are not taken lightly.
"It is a multi-agency process informed by expert medical advice, led by paediatricians, and every care is taken to ensure a child will be safe in the family home once a concern is raised. This is done as quickly but as thoroughly as possible.
"We are sure that this is what the public would expect. We would rightly be criticised if a child came to serious harm because we had not acted in accordance with statutory safeguarding procedures.
"We recognise it is distressing for parents when a child is placed in care but there are instances when parents agree to it happening, they work with us and retain parental responsibilities.
"Wherever possible, parents can visit their child regularly, sometimes daily, to allow continued contact and bonding. We always act in the best interests of the child.
''Sadly, we are all too familiar with tragedies that have occurred and hit the headlines because a child was not protected as we would all hope they would be."
Aneurin Bevan Health Board said: ''These situations are, by nature, emotional and distressing but the health board is bound by national safeguarding procedures which must be followed to ensure the protection of children and prevention of harm. The management of such cases is coordinated, and led by social services, from a safeguarding perspective, with the active engagement of clinicians and the paediatric consultant.
"The radiological element is one part of the overall investigation and the radiologists do not have any contact with social services and are solely involved with the imaging independently. The radiological investigation is called a skeletal survey and there is a standard requirement for the skeletal survey to be repeated 14 days later after initial imaging, before a radiological diagnosis can be finalised.
"In the health board, as per standard practice, all skeletal surveys are double-reported by two consultant radiologists with specialisation in paediatric imaging, with an option for a third read after the second set of imaging, at 14 days, is completed regionally. The complete finalised report is then fed back to the managing paediatric team to discuss with the multi-agency team, in conjunction with an overall assessment of risk.
"We would encourage the family to make direct contact with the health board so we can ensure they receive the full information and feedback they are seeking.'' Although the Ombudsman for Wales did not get involved in this particular case, it said that it found 16 unique complaints regarding radiology services between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2022 with three cases upheld and a fourth partially upheld.
The Ombudsman for Wales said: "We do not commonly see complaints specifically about radiology, although that service may be a secondary subject in many of the complaints reaching our office. Complaints to us about children being wrongly put into care due to misdiagnosis of X-rays have been very rare over the years.
"Anyone with concerns about their child's care and treatment should raise those concerns in the first place with their healthcare provider. However, we encourage anyone who remains dissatisfied with the response to their concerns to contact our office."
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