Marshall was then investigated for abuse by Child Protective Services and the police but eventually cleared. Barbara Knox and Physician Assistant Amanda Palm interrogated her.
An X-ray revealed a cracked rib, and she was sent to American Family Children’s Hospital. In January 2018, Kimberly took her infant son Marshall to a clinic to investigate excessive fussiness and a “crackling” sound she heard in his lungs. Kimberly Marshall, Tim Hass and Marshall Hass, 4, are seen at their home in Middleton, Wis., on Oct. They are among the families and caregivers who spoke to Wisconsin Watch after a 2020 investigation revealed Knox had wrongly suspected a Mount Horeb family of child abuse. In seven cases spanning seven years, the child abuse pediatrician labeled accidents and medical conditions as abuse - allegations later rejected by police, child protection officials and other doctors, Wisconsin Watch has found. Knox kept saying, ‘No, there’s no medical reason, this was intentional trauma, nonaccidental trauma,’ ” he recalled.īut Knox was wrong. Greg Shebesta researched possible medical reasons for his son’s condition on the internet. That triggered an investigation that began even before Henry’s surgery. Barbara Knox, then-head of the University of Wisconsin’s Child Protection Program, had flagged the Shebestas’ case, alleging the baby’s brain bleeding was intentionally inflicted. I was afraid they were gonna take them away from us,” he said, referring to Henry and his older brother Jack, who was 3 years old.ĭr.
Greg Shebesta remembered a torrent of fear washing over him that winter day seven years ago. “He was trying to understand if I was a person who would hurt my child,” Katie Shebesta said. As a child protective services worker questioned them in their baby’s hospital room, Greg and Katie Shebesta of Janesville, Wisconsin, held their nearly 6-month-old upright, allowing the excess fluid to drip through tubes a brain surgeon had inserted beneath his skull.