Social services remove child due to meningitis

Were they right to do this?

Parents John and Donna, from Doncaster, first took their 6-month-old daughter Isabella to see a doctor when she was three months old after noticing head swelling.

They were told their daughter just had a large head.

John and Donna told the Daily Mail “We trusted the doctor but it remained enlarged and then she had a seizure at six months old. We rang for an ambulance and took her to Doncaster Royal Infirmary.”

The doctors concluded the bleed on Isabella’s brain could have been caused by shaking and believed their other son Ollie was at risk from his parents. Social services turned up at the couple’s home the following evening to take two-year-old Ollie away.

 Isabella and Ollie

John and Donna endured days of accusations from authorities before doctors discovered little Isabella’s head-swelling was a result of the meningitis she contracted as a newborn

Because the Meningitis went undetected Isabella suffered a brain haemorrhage as a result of BESS, a condition she contracted after suffering meningitis

BESS is also known as benign enlarged subdural spaces, which caused blood vessels in her brain to stretch – leaving them vulnerable to haemorrhages from even a slight knock.

Social services applied for an order for both young children to be removed from their care.

Donna, 37, says Ollie remains traumatised from being dragged away from his loving parents and is now very clingy.

“We were absolutely in shock. We had taken our daughter to hospital because we were concerned about her health, and now police had arrived to take our son away from us.”

After two days of hell the family’s case was heard in court and a medical report confirmed Isabella suffered from the devastating illness.

Ollie was finally allowed home with his parents – but Donna remains angry at the way social services handled the situation.

Riana Nelson, of Doncaster social services, said: “The council does not comment on individual cases. However, social care providers have firm legal duties to investigate and take steps to safeguard children where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they may be at risk.”

Were Social Services right to take Ollie? Should the Social Services issue an apology?