After their two-month old baby, Zeydn, suffered a broken arm and three fractured ribs, Rebecca Wanosik and her husband lost all of their children to foster care. The reason? Child abuse.
Just recently, however, an endocrinologist assured it was vitamin D deficiency and rickets and that the parents imposing harm on their children is yet to be proven, NBC News reports.
Zeydn first experienced cracking and popping in the ribs during her first 3 weeks. Having consulted her physician, Rebecca was told that it was a normal occurrence among newborn babies.
It was when Zeydn cried last Feb. 24, after her mother lifted her arm to wave goodbye to her brother, that the baby was once again bought to the hospital. A new pediatrician looked at her and then called the authorities in conclusion that the child suffered physical abuse from her father. Zeydn and her four other siblings were put to foster care.
"Not only did they say that I hurt the baby, but they also said my wife was aware of it. There is no way I hurt this baby. I have been waiting a long time to have a child of my own, and I even cried when she was born," said Anthony Wanosik, a combat engineer serving in the military, NBC News reports.
With diagnosis of baby Zeydn's sickness, the couple is now battling the Missouri Department of Social Services to regain custody of their five children.
Rebecca, a researcher and a law student, told NBC News that the authorities may have thought of her to be "stupid and no better" since she had tattoos and piercings, and her husband earns not so much for an income.
The mother subjected herself to testing and proved to have "almost undetectable" levels of vitamin D of 5 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL); healthy levels of vitamin D range between 20 to 30 ng/mL. As reported by Medical Kidnap, after Baby Zeydn was subjected to bone scan, the child was diagnosed of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which is believed to be genetic and have caused musculoskeletal complications.
Aside from this, experts believe that the illness may also be caused by injuries acquired during the birthing process and that moving the child may have unlikely caused the said fractures.
The Wanosiks are certain to win the case, having experts as witnesses to baby Zeydn's sickness to eventually disprove the allegations of child abuse.
