Indiana Parents Say Doctor Never Laid Eyes on the Baby but Still Cited Abuse

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - A couple from Indiana filed a lawsuit against the State's Department of Child Services (DCS) and a local children's hospital after their young kids were taken away because their baby's broken leg was mistaken for child abuse.

The parents, Grant and Myranda Phillips, have filed a lawsuit against DCS and the Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, alleging that they violated the couple's due process rights, Law & Crime reported. 

The lawsuit states, in part, that Myranda Phillips took their two-month old daughter to the emergency room at Riley on December 26, 2022, after she noticed swelling in the girl's legs. They had spent time with their family over the holidays and the girl had been handled by other children, according to the lawsuit. 

An X-ray determined that the girl had multiple fractures of different ages. This concerned doctors who contacted DCS to investigate possible child abuse. The lawsuit alleges that DCS case manager Rachel Lucas contacted doctors with expertise in child abuse.

One of the doctors erroneously told Lucas that the girl was suffering from broken fibulas, as stated in the lawsuit. The doctor said the girl's injuries were "highly suspicious of child abuse, could only have been caused by a significant amount of blunt force, and could not have been caused by a child," the lawsuit said.

There was "an immediate concern" for the girl's safety, per the lawsuit, which noted that the doctor who was consulted never even saw the baby in person. The doctors who did see the little girl in person noticed that she had blue sclera, which is a condition where the whites in the eyes appear blue, gray or purple and can be a symptom of brittle bone disease.

The Phillips' lawyers said that had the hospital tested further, they would have determined the girl was suffering from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder associated with a higher rate of bone fractures in children.

Instead, DCS and expert doctors allegedly determined the girl was suffering from child abuse and two days after Christmas, took custody of not only the baby but also her older sibling, who was three-years-old at the time. The "preliminary inquiry" filed with the Marion County Superior Court also included the erroneous fact about the broken fibulas when she actually suffered a tibia fracture, according to the lawsuit.

The parents claim that they were deprived of their due process rights. "There was no proper investigation before they took our children," Grant Phillips told the Indianapolis Star. "And it was an uphill battle in getting them back. We did all the services DCS asked to be unified, but they wouldn't do it."

Altogether, the kids were removed from the Phillips home for almost a year. The kids were returned after a fact-finding hearing determined DCS failed to prove the kids were abused or neglected.

'The judge railed against DCS after she dismissed our case," Grant said. "She told them they were essentially 'grasping at straws.' They admitted during court proceedings that they were not making any efforts to unify our family. There was no accountability for this situation that came completely out of left field for us."

Grant said DCS and the hospital need to be held accountable. "They are literally ripping families apart," he told WRTV. In a filing responding to the lawsuit, DCS said it did nothing wrong and further denied that the plaintiffs are "entitled to any relief." 

DCS declined to comment on the specific allegation, but said, in part: "Indiana Department of Child Services family case managers are often put in challenging situations and must make difficult life or death decisions about child safety. We appreciate the complexity of the decisions they must make and support them in keeping Hoosier children safe."