The birth of a child is one of the most important moments in the life of a family. A long-awaited and desired day, which often arrives preceded by months of doubts, panic, dizziness and complications. A wide range of possibilities that are erased at the key point, when one holds the little one in one’s arms and discovers body contact. However, not all births end happily.
A chaotic situation that Estefanía and Luis Miguel experienced, who lost custody of their newborn for a total of ten months. The couple has attended the program Y Ahora Sonsoles on Antena 3, presented by Sonsoles Ónega, to explain their unexpected case. Both explained that the Department of Social Services took the baby away from them under accusations of abuse, after an incident that ended with a hospital admission.
It all happened on June 15, 2023, when the baby ended up in a medical center after a medical complication. His father was giving him a bottle when he started having seizures and eventually passed out. The comings and goings until ending up in the hospital raised suspicions of possible abuse by the family. A social worker from the medical center called the judge the next morning to activate the protocol.
She questioned Estefanía on several occasions about her relationship with Luis Miguel, asking how she allowed her to spend 24 hours with the little boy while she was following the hospitalization of a family member, and why she had not separated from him. For her part, the baby had to be operated on up to four times in the following nine days, giving doctors the suspicion that she was suffering from shaken baby syndrome.
“Shaken or shaken child syndrome is a form of child physical abuse that includes the existence of intracranial trauma that entails a set of clinical and pathological alterations that make up a well-defined syndrome. Normally, the brain damage that occurs leads to mental deterioration of varying intensity, sometimes leading to very important injuries and sequelae in the central nervous system,” says SciELO.
Retinal bleeding from the second operation and a cervical injury were sufficient reasons for Social Services to take him away. For the next ten months, the parents had to visit the child in a nursing home under strict security conditions, after he was rudely taken from their hands at the hospital. After almost a year of legal confrontation, the judge agreed with the couple and dismissed the accusations.
