Initial Outreach from Angel
Hello,
To make a long story short, my husband has been accused by the police of causing a right femur fracture to my then 7 week old premature baby. My baby sustained the fracture by my car seat in my care back in march 2015. I didn’t even realize he had a fracture. His demeanor was more fussy than usual. I thought he was coming down with colic. He would cry every time I picked him up to breastfeed him. My husband wasnt even here until that evening. He noticed the swelling the day after the incident and immediately took him to ER. DCF investigated and closed the case 5 months later stating non substantiated and no indicators . 4 months later my husband was arrested for cruelty to child. Medical records state no signs of NAT or bruising. Medical records also state that the injury could’ve been age related. So we don’t know if he sustained a fracture during birth and then it got reinjured during the car incident. My husband and I are both military and have never been arrested before. I’ve been in for 19 years and he is a decorated officer in in the army for 17 years with 7 deployment tours and together we have 4 children. Law enforcement are trying to say because he was the one that noticed the injury and took him in he is the cause of injury. Our baby had to get a splint for a couple of weeks and his fracture healed with no issues. He was 8 weeks old when it happened and now he’s almost a year and hes starting to walk. The baby was never taken from us and law enforcement never came to speak with us in the course of 9 months. Dcf came to the house twice. This whole situation is a mess and my husband hasn’t seen his child in over a month. They put an outstanding warrant out for his arrest written on 3 December and my husband was arrested 4 December. They called it fugitive of justice. Said he fled Milton and went to alabama when in fact he lives in Alabama and comes down ever week to see his family. So how was he a fugitive when we had no idea he was wanted? Please advise.
A month after our baby’s injury I had lab work and bone scan done on my self and found out that I am vitamin d deficient and I have osteopenia. My mother is also vitamin d deficient and so is his aunt and grandmother. My husband also have bone issues. When he was a toddler he had to wear a corrective brace on his right leg and shoes. We found out last week that our baby is also vitamin d insufficient and has high alkaline phospate and on the very low end of phosphorous. My baby was also premature when he was born. He was 3.2 lbs at birth and close to 8 lbs at the time of incident. I was 32 weeks and 4 days when I had my emergency c section with our baby.
I have all of his medical records from birth until now. So please let me know what you need and I can get it to you.
I read on your article that taking tums while vitamin d deficient was a no no. Well my doctor advised me to take them with my acid reflux and I popped them like candy.
Thank you for taking the time to read my email and I look forward to hearing from you.
Angel
Dr. Holick’s Evaluation
After reviewing the medical records, Angel was found to have 25-Hydroxyvitamin D that was undetectable during her pregnancy. Thus, her son was vitamin D deficient at birth and he had infantile rickets. He was breastfed and did not received any vitamin D supplementation. It is well documented that human breast milk contains little if any vitamin D which is why it is recommended as standard of care that all infants especially breastfeed infants should receive 400 IUs vitamin D a day. Angel is an African American and African Americans had much higher risk for vitamin D deficiency. I testified and explained to the court that Adrian had infantile rickets which markedly increased his risk for fragility fractures. This is the reason for the fractures that were observed. They were not caused by non-accidental trauma as was reported by the child abuse expert. As you can appreciate from the attached letter of support the misdiagnosis of being accused of child abuse was extremely traumatic for the family.
This is very similar to what was recently reported where a mother from Aberdeen had similar experience of her child being taken away because she was misdiagnosed as causing non accidental trauma of her child.
Letter of Support from Adrian
To: Medical Executive Committee Boston Medical University
From: Adrian
Date: September 13, 2020
Approximately seven police officers came into my home at 2am, December 3rd, 2015, took me into custody, and charged me with “Fugitive from Justice” and “Aggravated Child Abuse”.
It was about 2am. I heard loud banging and went to see what the commotion was about, and to my surprise and shock, in front of my home were five police vehicles and what appeared to be the entire nighttime police shift at my doorstep. I opened the door and asked if I could help them. They asked for my name in which an officer stated that they had a warrant for my arrest and to allow them to come into my home. As what appeared to be a squad of soldiers entering my home, a few of them asked me if I was “poser” as they saw my military uniforms hanging up in the closet. I spent the next 11 days in three separate county jails, one city jail, and 17 hours, hands and feet shackled, in the back of an extradition van as I was being extradited from Alabama, where I was stationed, back to Florida where this horrible, traumatic event began.
I was held at one county jail, for about seven days, in which I was one of five people in a four-person cell, sleeping on the floor less than three feet from the toilet. I was placed under a no contact order with our son, but not our three daughters. I was alone, and reverted to a military mind-set for survival, unafraid. But not now. I am terrified daily of what could have happened. This has traumatized me more than seven combat tours.
Our son was born almost three months early, at 3 pounds and 2 ounces. However, he arrived right on time. My mother had passed away three weeks before he was born, and he was a welcome distraction to our family, to help us remember that when one life leaves this earth, it is making space for another one to come in.
At the time of our son’s birth, my wife was of advanced maternal age, with multiple health conditions including, but not limited to, hypertension and osteopenia. The result was her developing preeclampsia, resulting in reverse diastolic flow, and the hospital staff determining that mom and baby would have a higher probability of surviving labor if they performed an emergency C-section. All of this was occurring less than three weeks from having just buried my mother. Not to mention that at the time, I had been in the military 17 years and accumulated seven combat tours in support of the Global War on Terrorism.
Nothing. Absolutely nothing- military training, up-bringing- nothing- can prepare someone to be taken out of their home in the middle of the night and tossed into jail. Nothing can prepare an individual to be detained for almost two weeks, extradited, attend court, docket hearings, and depositions, every month for almost three years.
Nothing can prepare a wife, a family, their children, and their family to watch their loved one be prosecuted, poked and prodded, for three years and their freedom, their health, and their well-being be attacked by a false accusation.
Nothing can prepare a family, emotionally, mentally, or psychologically, to have their child removed fromtheir care. Nothing can prepare a career soldier for the probability of losing the freedom that they have served over a decade and a half to ensure that their fellow citizens enjoyed theirs.
In the midst of uncertainty, my wife began researching our sons’ condition and injury, and found multiple medical explanations. Unfortunately, many medical professionals hear about this type of injury and discreetly shut their doors, and advise their colleagues to follow suit. My wife, Angel, contacted another angel, Dr. Michael Holick.
Dr. Holick provided us the opportunity to present him a general overview of our situation. He was respectful, kind, and extremely professional. With the rapidly escalating debt we were incurring due to legal counsel, associated fees, and life in general, Dr. Holick took our case pro bono. In months, he was the only person we spoke with that didn’t treat us as criminals and bad parents. He was the only medical professional that didn’t look down his nose at us. He never said it would be easy, nor that this was an open and closed case, but he did base his findings on science, peer reviewed medical journals, and experience. He was an absolute godsend.
We lost three Christmases together. I wasn’t able to be there for my only son’s first three birthdays. I missed his first steps. I wasn’t able to attend his doctor appointments, or change his diapers, or watch him learn and explore things that made him curious. I was stripped of my privilege to be his dad. I was restricted from being who I was good at being- a husband and a father. My wife was forced to be a single parent.
As a service member, credibility, especially as you become more senior, becomes the thing that you rely upon the most to get things done. I was a field grade officer at this chapter of my life. My career was put on pause. Suddenly, once the rumor of the accusations against me spread around my workplace, I was isolated. No one wanted to be associated with a [an accused] child abuser.
But we won. We powered through this significantly emotional event. We are still married, our children were never removed, our son has thrived and experienced no further injuries, and we have a testimony to share. Please realize that this was not easy. Dr. Holick and his experience were instrumental in our accomplishment. His multiple testimonies, depositions, conferences with our legal counsel, and expert reports aided our legal team to successfully represent me during trial.
This win didn’t come without a loss. To date, I have yet to sleep without medication. To date, I have been seen by cardiologists, neurologists, psychologists, and psychiatrists. To date, the word “investigation” torments me and the sight of the police or “county jail” distresses me. My family has suffered. They have lost time. They lost a part of me that died trying to survive the State of Florida vs. Adrian. I often wondered why I would see homeless veterans. How did that person end up on the side of the road with a sign “will work for food” or “homeless vet-please help”? I understand now.
22 veterans commit suicide every day. That could have been me. But, by the grace of God, my wife and family, and Dr. Holick’s help and patience, we made it through.
Please strongly consider this letter as our utmost endorsement of the professionalism, respect, and patriotism of Dr. Holick.
