Weeks later, he still had two marks on his cheeks, so she brought up her concerns at his checkup. “I was taking him to be weighed at 6 weeks old and the health visitor asked if I had any concerns,” she said. “I showed her the bruises and she said: ‘Yes, I was about to ask you what they were.’” They allowed her to strap Teddy into his car seat and said that they wouldn’t handcuff her if she didn’t put up a fight. “I cried all the way to the police station,” she said. “All I could think was, ‘What the hell is going on?’” More from CafeMom: Girl From Viral Cancer Photo Dies & Hearts Break for Her Family “I told them Teddy was born with red marks covering his limbs and that he had a bleed on the eye when he was born — another symptom of easy bruising — but they didn’t listen,” Sparkes said. “…. They put me in handcuffs in the hospital and walked me out through A&E. It was horrible. People were staring at me. In the police car back to the station, I was shaking with anger and shock.” “It was awful,” Hodgkins said. “We didn’t want to cry in front of the children, but when they left, we blubbed our eyes out. I was always worried Teddy wouldn’t recognize me the next time he saw me, and Amelia would kick and scream when it was time to go.” Amelia was allowed to come home after five weeks, but Teddy was moved to a relative’s care. “[Hodgkins] would say, ‘I can’t do this any more. I can’t live without my children,’” Sparkes said. “She’d recently given birth and now her baby had been wrenched away from her. Trying to explain to Amelia why she couldn’t come home was very hard. We just said the authorities had to find out where Teddy’s bruises came from and when they found out, she’d be able to come home.” As investigators were still looking into the case, Hodgkins’s mom realized that there might be a different reason for the bruises found on her grandson’s body that had nothing to do with abuse. There was a family history of bruising, and Hodgkins and her siblings had been diagnosed with a rare genetic condition — Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, or EDS. This connective tissue disorder is typically characterized as joints and skin that can be stretched further than normal as well as fragile tissue. According to The Ehlers-Danlos Society, a common symptom includes skin that tears easily with bruising that can be severe. The family had to wait weeks for the judge to approve their request to have genetic testing done, and the results came back four months after Teddy was originally removed from his home. “My son and daughter were taken away from me when I did nothing wrong,” Hodgkins said. “I lost five months’ bonding during a formative time in their lives. I can never get that back,” Hodgkins said. “…. When Teddy came back, I didn’t know his routine. It took a while, but we found it again together. He’d got used to a different mum putting him to bed, another voice tucking him in and saying, ‘Good night.’ I don’t think I’ll ever truly recover from that.” More from CafeMom: 20 Kids Have Died From the Flu This Year: Here’s What Parents Need to Know
title: “These Parents Wrongly Lost Custody Of Their Baby Over A Misdiagnosis” ShowToc: true date: “2024-10-09” author: “James Astorga”
Weeks later, he still had two marks on his cheeks, so she brought up her concerns at his checkup. “I was taking him to be weighed at 6 weeks old and the health visitor asked if I had any concerns,” she said. “I showed her the bruises and she said: ‘Yes, I was about to ask you what they were.’” They allowed her to strap Teddy into his car seat and said that they wouldn’t handcuff her if she didn’t put up a fight. “I cried all the way to the police station,” she said. “All I could think was, ‘What the hell is going on?’” More from CafeMom: Girl From Viral Cancer Photo Dies & Hearts Break for Her Family “I told them Teddy was born with red marks covering his limbs and that he had a bleed on the eye when he was born — another symptom of easy bruising — but they didn’t listen,” Sparkes said. “…. They put me in handcuffs in the hospital and walked me out through A&E. It was horrible. People were staring at me. In the police car back to the station, I was shaking with anger and shock.” “It was awful,” Hodgkins said. “We didn’t want to cry in front of the children, but when they left, we blubbed our eyes out. I was always worried Teddy wouldn’t recognize me the next time he saw me, and Amelia would kick and scream when it was time to go.” Amelia was allowed to come home after five weeks, but Teddy was moved to a relative’s care. “[Hodgkins] would say, ‘I can’t do this any more. I can’t live without my children,’” Sparkes said. “She’d recently given birth and now her baby had been wrenched away from her. Trying to explain to Amelia why she couldn’t come home was very hard. We just said the authorities had to find out where Teddy’s bruises came from and when they found out, she’d be able to come home.” As investigators were still looking into the case, Hodgkins’s mom realized that there might be a different reason for the bruises found on her grandson’s body that had nothing to do with abuse. There was a family history of bruising, and Hodgkins and her siblings had been diagnosed with a rare genetic condition — Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, or EDS. This connective tissue disorder is typically characterized as joints and skin that can be stretched further than normal as well as fragile tissue. According to The Ehlers-Danlos Society, a common symptom includes skin that tears easily with bruising that can be severe. The family had to wait weeks for the judge to approve their request to have genetic testing done, and the results came back four months after Teddy was originally removed from his home. “My son and daughter were taken away from me when I did nothing wrong,” Hodgkins said. “I lost five months’ bonding during a formative time in their lives. I can never get that back,” Hodgkins said. “…. When Teddy came back, I didn’t know his routine. It took a while, but we found it again together. He’d got used to a different mum putting him to bed, another voice tucking him in and saying, ‘Good night.’ I don’t think I’ll ever truly recover from that.” More from CafeMom: 20 Kids Have Died From the Flu This Year: Here’s What Parents Need to Know
