Doctor"s Diary: The dad and mom who have little hope of acquiring a fair trial in Britain

The late Cassandra Jardine – whose occupation as a characteristic author for this newspaper has been commemorated with a memorial prize, with the very first winner to be selected shortly – campaigned vigorously on behalf of innocent mother and father accused of possessing deliberately injured their children. In a brilliant write-up published six many years ago, she outlined the contentious healthcare theories that had resulted in many gross miscarriages of justice, but hoped “the required lessons have been learnt”. Regrettably not.

What would she have manufactured of the situation of Jill McCartan, featured in Panorama’s “I Want My Little one Back” programme earlier this month, forced to flee to Spain to escape the tentacles of the social solutions established to take her newborn son into care. Two many years earlier, Jill and her partner had taken their daughter Alyssa, then aged 10 weeks, to hospital with an unexplained fracture of the arm. X-rays uncovered 3 additional healing fractures of her ribs and leg. According to the programme, the healthcare specialists concurred these injuries had been induced deliberately, regardless of there not being the type of circumstantial evidence such as bruising, pain or swelling of the limbs that may possibly reasonably be anticipated had they been brought on by extra bodily force.

The specialists didn’t advise the dad and mom that blood tests had shown Alyssa’s vitamin D levels to be virtually undetectable. There have been grounds for an appeal as she would probably have had rickets, which could only also readily account for those “unexplained” fractures. But, surprisingly, this was turned down on a technicality. Alyssa was put up for adoption.

Meanwhile, Jill was eight months pregnant with her 2nd child who would, in see of the judgment towards her, have also been taken into care at birth. And so, on the guidance of the Lib Dem MP John Hemming, she fled to Spain and went into hiding.

I doubt Jill McCartan and her partner are kid abusers, but their plight, with each other with three quite equivalent situations highlighted by Panorama, clarify what has grow to be the fundamental concern and 1 that Cassandra would have recognised only as well properly: there is quite minor possibility of “lessons getting learnt”, because for all of these involved – the medical experts, social employees and the judiciary – to acknowledge there may well be would be to concede that they may possibly have been instrumental in so numerous miscarriages of justice. These parents have minor hope of getting a fair trial in Britain simply because, as Hemming observes, “they can not depend on the evidence being fair”. Surprising, but correct.

——-

The gentleman with “ferocious” attacks of a burning, biting, itching sensation that can influence any component of his body could, it is recommended, have a variation of migrant sensory neuritis, as initially described 50 many years in the past by the US neurologist Robert Wartenberg (following whom it is named). This is the sudden onset of a searing discomfort in the distribution of the sensory nerve following a straightforward movement typically performed without sick result – this kind of as kneeling, stretching in bed or pointing the foot when placing on a sock. The discomfort might be followed by numbness at the web site, which typically resolves inside of a handful of days. Like several neurological disorders, its cause is obscure but has apparently no lasting adverse consequences.

The additional feasible culprit could be, yet once again, the cholesterol-decreasing statin, as a reader reviews his “very similar symptoms” resolving right after discontinuing the drug. The remedies proposed as getting beneficial are the drug carbamazepine and outdated-fashioned calamine lotion, “whose calming results are instant and final numerous hours”.

Email medical questions confidentially to Dr James LeFanu at drjames@telegraph.co.united kingdom. Solutions will be published on the Telegraph web site each Friday, at telegraph.co.united kingdom/overall health

Doctor"s Diary: The dad and mom who have little hope of acquiring a fair trial in Britain