Justice For Families

( I want someone to tell us all when is ENOUGH) This was not in Canada, BUT make no mistake it happens here too, and men women and children are dying, families are LEFT runied. Children left in a system that cranks out more harm then could come to those left in homes that parents did not clean well enough for a social worker, or might have said no to a doctor, worse blamed for a childs illness or death... and on and on it goes, dr Smith and gang, had the child and family NON service act changed, on FLAWED fantasy of et al,,, IT time to change it back. NOW.
and stop abusing the poor, in many cases made that way from CAS actions, and medical cover ups.
justice system and junk science. ONE MORE TIME, we are all brave enough to look in the systems that are NOT working and causing harm, JUST MAKE THIS GOVERNMENT DO IT, all of it, its past time. Headlines, are heads are spinning, till no one will vote.

Alyssa O'Shell 7-month-old October 28,2008 Lakewood,Colorado

Child's Diagnosis Compounds Family Tragedy

The Cuils say they knew that Alyssa was not being abused, but no matter how they urged, Adams County Social Services to look into the possibility of a disease, they wouldn't listen.

Baby wasn't abused by cop dad; she died of fatal malady

If only Dave O'Shell had hung on just a bit longer. Just a couple more days and tests would have proved he was innocent.
O'Shell, a Lakewood police officer, was suspected of abusing his 3-month-old daughter. Baby Alyssa had been taken away. O'Shell's wife, Tiffany, had been advised to divorce him if she ever wanted to get her daughter back.

O'Shell, pressured to confess, believed he was about to be arrested for something he didn't do.

"I think he snapped," said Jackie Cuin, Tiffany's mother.

"Nobody was giving him any hope," said Paul Cuin, Tiffany's father. "Everything was painted as black as it could be."

So, on June 30, O'Shell shot Tiffany to death as she slept, then put two guns in his mouth and pulled both triggers, killing himself. Turns out he was innocent all along.

Spinal muscular atrophy

At a court hearing two days after the deaths, Alyssa's foster mother said she had noticed something wrong with the baby. Genetic tests were ordered.

The results came back the day after the Cuins buried Tiffany: Alyssa had spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic disease that prevents the muscles from developing. The diagnosis explained the 11 fractures on Alyssa's tiny body. It wasn't her father's fault at all.

"I knew, knowing both of them, that neither of them had hurt that baby," Jackie Cuin said.

"He loved his baby," Paul Cuin said. "That was his world. He adored her."

But the diagnosis came too late. Dave was already the prime suspect, "presumed guilty," Paul said.

Jackie said her daughter was "hysterical" when Alyssa was taken away, just 13 days before Dave O'Shell would end her life and his own. Dave, too, was despondent, worried that he had lost his baby forever, that he would go to jail, that he would lose Tiffany, too.

"It was horrendous," Jackie said. "They were scared to death."

'The system failed them'

After the murder-suicide, the Cuins fought for custody of Alyssa and finally brought her home. But the baby deteriorated. She couldn't eat or swallow or lift her head. She needed oxygen. Mucus had to be suctioned from her airway five or six times a day. Alyssa was dying - but it had nothing to do with abuse.

"We were hoping we'd make it to Christmas," Paul said.

Alyssa died Tuesday.

Thursday, the Cuins said it was time to talk about what happened to the O'Shells and Alyssa.

"They were innocent," Jackie said. "The system failed them."

Paul now wants to raise awareness about spinal muscular atrophy. It affects 1 in 6,000 children, but "nobody knows about it," he said.

He also wants to clear the names of Dave and Tiffany O'Shell. He knows some people still think Dave did what he did because he got caught. It's more likely he did it because he didn't have hope, Paul said.

"The minute they hit on abuse, they wouldn't look any further, even though we kept telling them there's more," he said.

Jackie feels robbed.

"My daughter's gone, and my grandbaby's gone," she said.

"It's not just that they're gone," Paul said. "They're gone for unnecessary reasons."

A dancing Elmo toy

On a counter in the kitchen of their Henderson home, the Cuins have kept one of Alyssa's favorite toys, a dancing Elmo. They bought it for her for Christmas but decided to give it to her early. She loved it.

Sealed in a bag is a blanket that still smells like Alyssa.

They miss her smile, the smile they lived for, the smile that made their world. But they picture Alyssa now, with her mommy and daddy. And she is doing the things she couldn't do here. She can move her arms and legs. The O'Shells are happy together once again.

"We decided that morning that Tiffany came down and said, 'It's time, sweetie, let's go home,' " Paul said.

"It's bittersweet," Jackie said. "But I'm happy for her. I'm happy for the kids to have her."

What is spinal muscular atrophy?

A degenerative motor neuron disease that affects the voluntary muscles used for activities such as crawling, head and neck control and swallowing. Muscles in the shoulders, hips and back generally are the most severely affected. Patients' cognitive functions are not affected.

Diagnosis is divided into four types, one of which is classified as adult-onset. The most severely affected babies are never able to lift their heads.

Care depends on the type of SMA, which can vary from severe to relatively benign. Some children can stand or even walk with the aid of braces or walkers. Feeding assist tubes are used in other cases in which children have trouble swallowing.

By Judi Villa, Rocky Mountain News

Child's Diagnosis Compounds Family Tragedy

Genetic problem blamed for injuries cop was investigated for

LAKEWOOD - Months after a Lakewood police officer killed his wife and then himself, the couples' family is speaking out about what led to the tragedy.

Dave and Tiffany O'Shell were about to face child abuse charges for something they didn't do. Doctors found some mysterious fractures in their three-month old daughter Alyssa's leg and thought she was being abused. It turns out Alyssa had a disease that would eventually kill her at just seven months old.

Alyssa's grandparents, Paul and Jackie Cuil took care of her until the very end. She died Tuesday from complications of a little-known disease called Spinal Muscular Atrophy, also known as SMA.

"She smiled till the end and she just went to sleep," said Jackie Cuil. About one in 6,000 people are diagnosed with SMA, although about one in 40 people carry the gene. In July, unaware of the disease, doctors thought Alyssa was being abused and turned her over to Adams County Social Services.

The Cuils say they knew that Alyssa was not being abused, but no matter how they urged, Adams County Social Services to look into the possibility of a disease, they wouldn't listen.

"Every time we tried to tell them look there's got to be something more, you need to research more, nope, that's it. That's what the doctors say it is. It's abuse. That's it. We're not looking any further," said Paul Cuil. A few weeks later, under a cloud of suspicion and on the verge of being charged with child abuse, Dave O'Shell, shot his wife Tiffany in her sleep, then turned the gun on himself.

"He just mulled everything over in his mind and in his mind, there was no hope left," said Paul Cuil. The Cuils say the shooting was the result of intense pressure from social services and doctors who had already presumed their daughter and son-in-law guilty.

A memo from Children's Hospital said Alyssa could not be returned to her family until her "caregivers can acknowledge that her injuries are from abuse." "Until we all admitted that Dave was guilty, we were not getting that baby back," Paul Cuil said.

Reached by phone an Adams County Social Services spokesman said he cannot comment on specific cases but he called the O'Shell deaths "a tragedy" and stressed that social services takes significant steps in the review process before removing a child, including getting approval from a judge.

It was not until after the murder-suicide that tests confirmed that Alyssa had SMA. Her grandparents were allowed to spend three months with her before she died on Tuesday October 28th. The Cuils say their only consolation is that she joined her parents.

"We rationalize that that morning Tiffany came down and said 'It's time to come home, sweetie.' And then she took her," Paul Cuil said.

Alyssa's funeral will be on Tuesday November 4th.

http://m.rockymountainnews.com/news/200 ... al-malady/

http://www.myfoxcolorado.com/myfox/page ... geId=3.2.1

"They were innocent. - The system failed them."

Another one for the annals of Unnecessary Angels and The Child Protection Racket. Barbara

The "official or professional" people adding misery to parents lives are better off being removed.

The bloke took the child and himself....leaving the misery makers free to upset more people.

Good that the secrets that the courts want hidden are coming to everyone's attention.

The truth should be known based on fact, not crystal ball theory. Conclusion jumpers should be held accountable each time that they are wrong to stamp out or minimize upsetting families, compounded by making much harsher punishments for people who harm children. (perhaps a Singapore jail sentence.)