Fight to bring Anariah home !
Donation protected
My husband, Damani, and I found out I was pregnant in June 2022 and we were ecstatic to become parents. At 20 weeks, I had concerns on why I was unable to feel baby kicks or movement. My OBGYN told me to just give it some time, that everything looked good. With this being my first pregnancy I didn't know exactly what to expect, but I just was so ready to feel our baby girl move.
In November, I started feeling like my OBGYN wasn't listening to my concerns or taking them seriously so I changed OBGYNs. The new OBGYN ran genetic screening which had not been done. It came back that I carried a trait for Alpha thalassemia, a blood disorder, so they wanted my husband to get tested as well. My husband's results came back that he also carried the trait so we were referred to get genetic counseling.
At the genetic counseling appointment, they explained the risks that our child could face and my risk at birth if she was to have Alpha thalassemia. Then they did an ultrasound that shifted my whole pregnancy and put me into complete panic. They told me it looked as if my baby had intrauterine growth restriction due to them not seeing a lot of blood flowing to my placenta and she seemed to be measuring smaller than normal so they said I would need to be induced at 38 weeks.
As we got closer to the induction, we had a checkup on February 1st where they told us something was off with our baby’s heart beat and referred me to the hospital. There, the ultrasound tech and nurses were all in a panic and told us our baby girl was not moving and had failed her stress test. They said she was going to have to come out today! They immediately started me on pitocin to induce my labor and that night we had our baby girl, Anariah. She came out 7lbs 0oz and they said everything looked good and she was healthy.
After leaving the hospital, we were going to the pediatrician every other week or sometimes every week for concerns such as rashes all over Anariah’s body, her sleeping throughout the night and not wanting to eat when woken up, as well as constant spitting up. We were told none of these things were a concern and that she just had GE reflux and eczema. We were also told to start giving her Vitamin D drops due to me exclusively breastfeeding. At every visit the pediatrician had no concerns other than her weight which we eventually got on track.
Little did we know our nightmare would soon begin.
On April 6th, 2023 when Anariah was 10 weeks old, my husband was putting on her onesie when he heard a pop in our daughter's right arm while placing her arm through the sleeve. He notified me immediately and I looked at her arm. She didn’t seem to be in any distress and nothing was bruised or swollen. We continued to monitor her that night, but she seemed fine. Over the following days we went to Easter events with friends. Anariah was still moving her arm normally and wasn’t showing any signs of discomfort.
On the following Monday, I put Anariah down for some tummy time like usual and that’s when I noticed she wasn’t pushing up on her right arm. I immediately brought her into the pediatrician who had me undress her fully so she could evaluate Anariah head to toe. The doctor said everything looked normal to her and that getting an X-ray wasn’t something she felt was necessary. I told her multiple times I felt more comfortable doing an X-ray before returning home so she ordered the x-ray and from there we found Anariah had a fracture in her right arm. They said Anariah was too small at the time for a cast and asked if I felt comfortable taking her to the closest children’s hospital which was in Florida (we live in Georgia near the Florida border). We went straight to the children’s hospital where they did a CT scan which came back normal and showed no underlying injuries or trauma. The following day, they did a full body skeletal x-ray to check for additional fractures which my husband was present for in the room. They initially told him they would have to retake the images because they weren’t clear, but afterwards, they said the X-rays that had been taken would be okay and they didn’t want to expose Anariah to more radiation.
From there, we were told our 10 week old daughter had 14 fractures in various stages of healing. We were in shock because we had never noticed anything. She had never seemed under stress or shown any signs of pain up until this point. We were so confused at this news, like how could this have happened? We were notified by Georgia DFCS that Anariah was going to be taken into care by the state. We lost it. We were shocked and distraught. I requested multiple times to speak with the radiologist about Anariah’s supposed healing fractures to try to get a better understanding of exactly what they were seeing, but I wasn’t ever able to speak with the radiologist. We were escorted off the hospital property by law enforcement even though we hadn’t said or done anything to anyone.
We were separated and interviewed by the police and I took a ‘voice stress test’ which I passed. Our daughter was placed into foster care, even though we provided kinship paperwork to have her placed with a family member. In court, it was stated by the state that the foster mom reported she heard a pop in one of Anariah’s legs while changing her diaper, but there was no need for the foster mom to take her to the doctor. We later found out that out of concern, the foster mom did actually take Anariah in to get an x-ray and they said there were no new fractures, but did note ‘periosteal reaction’.
Since then, it has been reported by my husband and I, the visitation center, and foster parent that our daughter still pops frequently, but the doctor says it’s normal and raises no concerns for further x-rays or testing to be done. I got blood work done which showed I was vitamin D deficient and anemic so I was prescribed vitamin D and Iron. After months of taking supplements, my vitamin D level was still low, only at 17 ng/ml so now they have me on 50,000 units of vitamin D for another 3 months to see if my levels increase or if we need to look into other underlying problems. We also found out that during Anariah’s newborn screening, she had ‘Hemoglobin Barts’ which can indicate alpha thalassemia. She also had other abnormal lab results in early March which we were never told the meaning of.
During the adjudication hearing, a medical expert testified that he believed our daughter had metabolic bone disease, testifying that the CT scan of her head showed ‘poor bone mineralization’.
Despite all of this pointing to an underlying medical condition, the child abuse pediatrician testified that this was abuse, even saying we would have had to slam our daughter against concrete to cause these fractures. The court made their ruling in September 2023 for ‘non-reunification and termination of our parental rights’. We have our TPR trial hearing coming up on December 2nd and 3rd 2024
As long as we have breath in our bodies we will never stop! We will always and forever advocate for our daughter.
Even if you cannot afford to donate please send prayers up for our family ❤️ We also ask you would to please share this GoFundMe with family and friends. All money donated will be going towards helping pay for legal fees and medical experts.
Together, we can bring Anariah home.
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Co-organizers (2)
Shelby Whiting
Organizer
Raeford, NC
Briaonna Whiting
Co-organizer