'Protect your kids. Protect yourselves' | Georgia parents fighting abuse charges say they were misjudged
Prior to 11Alive's investigation, Help That Harms, the families had never met. Together, they shared similar stories.
After months, even years of silence, more than a dozen parents and grandparents walked into 11Alive ready to make their private pain public.
The families come from different backgrounds, but their stories of how they lost custody of their children are eerily similar. Each sought out medical professional help for their baby's illness or injury - confused by what could be the cause.
They were blindsided when the diagnosis by a child abuse pediatrician was abuse - and they were the ones accused of doing it.
Several couples also face criminal charges, compounding their battle in juvenile court for custody.
"I know I'm an extraordinary mother, and when they told us that she had all [of] these fractures, they said they would run some tests," Erica Rose, whose daughter's X-rays revealed a fractured leg. "It still hasn't crossed my mind that they would ever even try to take her away. I just assumed we would figure it out."
The gallery below depicts the families that participated in 11Alive's group interview. The story continues after the gallery.
Help That Harms: Meet the families
A unifying experience
The reasons that brought these parents to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta vary.
"I was actually sent to the emergency room by our pediatrician because I noticed a lump on her arm," Yazmine Glynn said.
"My daughter was 5 months old when we noticed some swelling on her leg," Rose added.
"Our whole situation was weight loss," Diana Cranmer included. "They were immediately taking my 2-week-old daughter's clothes off, checking her for bruises."
"We walked down to tell our parents and our families bye, you know, they had to leave. They wouldn't be able to see our son," Bailey Collins said. "And we got back upstairs - everyone was whispering about us, like, I saw one of the nurses tap her friend and say, 'There they are,' like, 'There's the parents.'"
Within hours of child abuse and neglect accusations, two of the families said they saw their children in person for the last time within the confines of the hospital rooms they took them to for help.
Families that are still able to visit their children can do so only if they are supervised.
"We were there for no more than two hours," said Tarilyn Alexander.
She hasn't seen her son in three years.
"They separated us, questioned us and then told us that they were taking our son from us and we were immediately escorted out of the hospital by police," she said tearfully.
More questions than answers
11Alive reviewed nearly two dozen Georgia cases for its Help That Harms investigation.
The parents and even some medical professionals outside of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta agree: the injuries that brought the child to the hospital were medical - not abuse.
"My son went unresponsive on August 11 of 2023, and he was life-flighted to CHOA Egleston," Bailey Collins told 11Alive Investigates.
She and her husband, Casey Collins, were accused of shaking their baby - causing a brain bleed. Their son went into foster care before Bailey's parents got temporary custody. Bailey now lives with them so that she can be with her son but remain supervised.
"I lost it," Bailey Collins said when thinking about the hospital's accusations against her and her husband. "I just lost it."
Other families present during the Help That Harms group interview said they weren't aware a child abuse pediatrician, or CAP, was analyzing their children's injuries or illness for possible signs of abuse.
"When we spoke to the child abuse pediatrician, we didn't know initially she was a CAP. We found this out later once we got our medical records," Rose said.
"I didn't actually find out until we went to court," Yazmine Glynn added.
"Well, he didn't meet us in person. He called us on the phone," Eric Johnson said.
While the parents interviewed said they understand and want doctors, along with Georgia Division and Family Services (DFCS), to protect children - they question how much they truly want to figure out the cause once a label of abuse has been used.
"I wanted to get more follow-up X-rays," Rose said. "We kept asking and pushing for more follow-up X-rays, and they wouldn't - they wouldn't do it anymore."
"I came from Romania as an orphan. I was very tiny," Cranmer explained. "And my first thing is, okay, maybe she got my genetics somehow. It was just a slap to the face, like, 'No, we're not going to listen to you because you're wrong,'" she added.
"After I got custody of our baby - our grandson - I went to all kinds of doctors. And one of the first places was Emory Genetics. He refused," said Tracie Lester who does not believe her daughter or son-in-law abused her grandson.
"I asked him to do some genetic testing. He said, 'It's all right here on the computer. It's 100% abuse. I'm not giving any genetic testing.' And I told him I was willing to pay for whatever, and he just flat out refused," Lester said. "It was like that with almost every doctor I went to."
A matter of opinion
The Georgia families featured in 11Alive's investigation, Help That Harms, say additional medical opinions about their children's illnesses and injuries should be considered.
Most of the families also said they're actively advocating for better oversight on the weight initial CAP findings have in agencies like law enforcement and DFCS.
"I have 18 counts, two for each fracture. I have nine aggravated battery [charges] and nine child cruelty [charges]," Alexander said. "I'm facing 360 years in prison - me and my husband both are."
Alexander is not alone.
"So me and my husband were arrested with first-degree child cruelty charges, and we are out on bond. We won our juvenile court hearing, and the court ruled in our favor for my son to be returned home," Bailey Collins explained. "But since we're out on bond, we cannot be alone with him. So he's still living with my parents."
For nearly a year, Wilairat "Takki" Hernandez couldn't live, see or talk to her husband, Matthew, due to their bond conditions.
"I’m so lucky to have friends who come pick me up out of jail and let me go home and live with them," Takki Hernandez said. Due to her bond agreement, her husband could not participate in the group interview.
A judge did rule two months after this interview that Takki Hernandez could return home. They are now allowed to have joint visitation with their daughters, but still only supervised for a few hours each week.
RELATED: After kept apart for nearly a year, Georgia parents say their daughters are still paying the price
A costly fight
"The time frame of first bringing your kid to the doctor to having them taken: less than 24 hours," Stephen Glynn said during the group interview, "and it takes almost three years to have them come back home. How is that a speedy trial? How is that allowable?"
In addition to fighting for their children and the criminal charges against them, the families said they're also dealing with enormous financial debt from hiring attorneys and seeking independent medical evaluations for their children.
"We're $100,000 into this on expert witness fees. We both had to have different attorneys," Bailey Collins explained. "We have loans that we're paying back. We're barely making it."
"I was grateful that my parents was still alive in my corner to be able to shed out some money to get lawyers. I even had to, you know, sell everything out of my lawn care business," Eson Silas said fighting back tears.
Room for change
The families said they're living proof that something needs to change.
"I believe there should be a second opinion. That's [what] they've done in Illinois and Texas," said Rose. "You know, especially with our case. I mean, our doctor was in training. She wasn't a child abuse pediatrician, yet she still tore up our lives."
"Someone who's a child abuse pediatrician isn't a geneticist. They're not a pulmonologist. They're not endocrinologists," said Colleen Puckett, who also works with an attorney who represents these kinds of cases. "They're a child abuse pediatrician [and] their specialty is abuse. Their specialty is not to look at other medical conditions."
"I want the people out there to know that if you find yourself going through this situation, get their names. Start recording," Silas said. "You got to get you a lawyer ASAP because, you know, they're behind the scenes, and they're already making calls, already saying that this is abuse."
"Protect your kids. Protect yourselves. Learn your rights," he added.
11Alive Investigator Rebecca Lindstrom has been looking into the Help That Harms. Follow her investigation on demand via our streaming app 11Alive+ Available on Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV.