North Carolina mom Kaylee Doss who brought baby to emergency room over knot in shoulder is forced to wait 550 days to get daughter back after nurses called CPS when they found up to 13 unexplained fractures

A family has regained custody of their child, more than a year after a nurse called CPS when they noticed fractures in the baby’s collarbone.

Kaylee Doss and husband Landon had decided to take their daughter, Rowan, to the emergency room when they felt a knot in her collarbone.

‘I’m thinking cancer or something crazy. In my family we have some bone problems. So we decided to just go ahead and take her to the hospital,” Kaylee said People magazine.

At first, the nurses comforted Kaylee and assured her that her little angel would be fine. But after her baby was examined, the nurse’s tone completely changed.

“She looked at us and asked, ‘What have you done with this baby?’ Kaylee said. ‘She said: ‘For a child to suffer such serious injuries, something serious must have happened.’

The couple discovered that the six-week-old child had multiple fractures and was referred to CPS as an abused and neglected child

A child abuse pediatrician revealed that Rowan had between 8 and 13 fractures, and told Kaylee and Landon to prepare to speak with a social worker.

The parents were told that CPS had been called and were not allowed to leave the hospital until they spoke with them.

“And she just walked out. She didn’t tell us what was going on with Rowan, or about her injuries. She just told us… that we had to ‘get our story straight.'”

The nurse had Kaylee sign to consent to further testing.

‘We signed because we thought we would have genetic tests done. And they didn’t. Instead, she received rape kits and full skeletal examinations, as well as some extensive CT scans and MRIs,” she said.

A child abuse pediatrician revealed that she had between 8 and 13 fractures, and told Kaylee and Landon to prepare to speak with a social worker. The nurse told the parents that Rowan had been referred to CPS as an abused and neglected child.

The family was then placed under a ‘safety plan’, which included a hospital room with large windows so they could be monitored by staff.

They stayed with Rowan, but the next day social workers informed Kaylee and Landon that their daughter would be placed in foster care. Kaylee’s grandmother was offered as a possible kindness.

When Kaylee and Landon noticed their child was hungry, they started feeding her a bottle. The nurses hurriedly took the child from her arms and left the room.

‘I have never experienced such trauma in my life. I’ve been through some things, but nothing compares to having your child ripped away from you and grieving for a child who is still alive,” Kaylee says.

‘And that’s what we were doing. We mourned the loss of a living child whom we could see but not raise. There was a lot of just sitting and staring.”

The family was then placed under a ‘safety plan’, which included a hospital room with large windows so they could be monitored by staff.

They stayed with Rowan, but the next day social workers informed Kaylee and Landon that their daughter would be placed in foster care.

The couple met with a social worker, who told them that Rowan “didn’t look hurt, abused or neglected,” but they had to “let the investigation take its course, which typically takes between 30 and 45 days.”

Although Kaylee’s grandmother was able to stay at the hospital after Kaylee and Landon were forced to leave, Rowan was eventually given to a hospital worker as a foster parent.

Three days later, the kinship placement was approved and the couple could begin seeing Rowan while she was in the grandmother’s care.

“I just remember how blessed I was because most people in our cases don’t see their children at all. And when they do get to see them, it’s an hour a week, maybe two hours a week if they’re under two years old. So I did see her, but I wasn’t allowed to give her a bath. I wasn’t allowed to take her outside,” Kaylee said.

The couple visited Rowan at Kaylee’s grandparents’ home from June to November 2022 while they waited for developments in the case.

“We would feed her, we would change her, we would play with her. We made sure we were there as much as possible, but we still missed her first laugh and her first crawl and the first time she ate solid food,” Kaylee said.

“It felt hopeless because we missed those important moments in her development and felt so stripped of everything you should have after you get older.”

The couple eventually went to court and fought to get their child back. Kaylee refused to take responsibility for her child’s injuries.

After her statement, the couple signed a clause drawn up by the DSS, which “set out the facts that the pediatrician believed to be true. They were her findings and allegations, and they wanted us to acknowledge them.” Their lawyer reiterated that this was not an admission of guilt.

While the judge ruled Rowan an abused and neglected child and that she would remain in state custody, they would move forward with a reunification plan.

“They wanted us to do parenting classes, sexual assault prevention classes, have a cognitive clinical evaluation, an assessment of parental capacity. They wanted us to go to individual counseling and marriage counseling,” Kaylee said.

“I was in fight or flight mode. I don’t know how I managed it. Once a week we had to go to DSS for a supervised visit from a social worker, which in itself was daunting given the circumstances.”

While undergoing state protocols, Kaylee searched for medical answers that explained her daughter’s symptoms.

The couple met with a social worker, who told them that Rowan “did not appear harmed, abused or neglected,” but that they should “let the investigation take its course, which typically takes between 30 and 45 days.”

It took the family more than 500 days to regain custody of Rowan

‘I had done so much research and I found this article. One study included 72 babies with bone fractures and metabolic bone disease-like problems. But in the end, they all had that,” she said.

“I posted this article everywhere and I said, ‘I swear this is the same.’ It was the same fractures, same number of fractures, same placements.”

She managed to contact the same doctor who conducted the study, Dr. Michael Hollick. The parents were given permission to take their daughter to the doctor in Boston.

‘He did a genetic screening. He tested me, my mother and Rowan, and all three of us passed the Beighton scoring system. I had eight of the nine markers. Rowan and my mom had seven,” Kaylee said.

“It explained all our medical problems and vitamin deficiencies. There was nothing in Rowan’s medical records that I had worried about calling a doctor that had nothing to do with it. It explained the fractures so early in childhood.”

Kaylee and Landon continued to work together throughout 2023. The case was finally closed in December after more than 500 days.

The judge apologized to the family of three.

“It felt like it was a relief to get an apology from someone who acknowledged that we had been through hell and back.” But it was a little bitter because I didn’t want to be congratulated on getting my daughter back from the state,” Kaylee said.

‘I’m finally looking forward to the calm after the storm. We can finally breathe and walk our path of healing as a family.”