My baby’s bones kept breaking. Doctors thought I was abusing her but the real cause was devastating… and not as rare as you might think

Kendra and Eric Larson were filled with joy when they welcomed their daughter into the world. But just a month after bringing her home, their lives were turned upside down as the little girl suffered bone fractures and the parents were suspected of abuse.

Larson, 44, said she and her husband first took Hadley to the hospital when she was just four weeks old. They thought she had hip dysplasia, a condition in which the hip socket is too shallow to fully support the top of the thigh bone, causing instability.

‘We truly had no idea what was wrong,’ she said. 

Doctors began assessing the newborn by taking X-rays of her hips.

‘That’s when everything changed,’ Larson said.  

‘The X-rays showed that Hadley actually had two fractures that were at different stages of healing. Because of that, the doctors ordered a full skeletal survey, which means they X-ray everything in the body.

‘When those results came back, they found two more fractures.

‘Suddenly our tiny four-week-old baby had four fractures, and we had absolutely no explanation for how it could have happened.’

Already plunged into a nightmare with a severely injured child, the Larsons’ ordeal got even worse when doctors suspected the parents were inflicting the injuries on their daughter.

Larson said one doctor told them he needed to rule out whether they had caused brain damage to their child.

‘Hearing those words as a parent is something I will never forget,’ she said.

‘We had gone to the hospital scared and desperate for help for our baby, and in an instant the focus shifted away from Hadley and onto us – as if we might have been the ones who hurt her.

‘Suddenly we weren’t just parents trying to help our injured newborn, we were being looked at as possible child abusers.

‘It is one of the worst feelings you can imagine as a parent.’

Larson recalled a doctor telling her and her husband that they were going to admit Hadley to the hospital ‘for her safety.’

‘Those words are incredibly hard for any parent to hear, especially when you are already terrified and confused,’ she said.

‘What made it even harder was that our newborn baby had multiple fractures and was clearly in pain, and we were trying to process everything while also feeling like we were being treated with suspicion instead of support.’

Luckily, Larson said, Hadley’s pediatrician didn’t suspect child abuse at all, and called the hospital to offer a potential explanation to the mysterious fractures: Hadley had osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), a rare ‘china doll’ condition that made her bones so fragile they can snap in an instant.

Even then, though, the family’s ordeal was far from over.

‘We still had to meet with investigators to go through the process of proving we had not hurt our own child,’ Larson said. ‘All of this was happening while we were caring for a fragile four-week-old baby who we were desperately trying to protect.

‘It took about four months for the blood work and testing to confirm the diagnosis. Those months felt incredibly long and heavy.

‘Every day we were caring for our baby while also carrying the weight of being suspected of something we would never do.

Larson said the official diagnosis brought both ‘a sense of relief’ and ‘a lot of sadness.’

‘By that point,’ she explained, ‘we had done enough research to understand just how serious OI can be.’

Also known as brittle bone disease, the condition stops the body from producing enough collagen to keep bones strong. It impacts an estimated 25,000 to 50,000 people in the US and occurs in about one in every 16,000 to 20,000 births.  

OI is a genetic disorder caused by mutations in the COL1A1 and COL1A2 genes. There are at least 19 types of recognized OI, with Type I being the mildest and most common. Type I patients still have weak bones that break easily, but they often experience fewer fractures.

Type II is the most severe form and is often fatal, with fractures occurring even in the womb.

Types III through XIX vary in severity and can also result in short stature, bone deformities and significant mobility issues.

There is no cure or treatment for the condition. Affected parents and children must adjust their lifestyles to reduce the risk of fractures, and doctors treat each injury as it comes up.  

‘In some ways, getting the answer we had been searching for also meant letting go of the hope that it might be something less severe or something she might simply grow out of,’ Larson said. 

‘The diagnosis gave us clarity, but it also marked the beginning of a completely different journey than we had ever imagined for our daughter.’

She called the ordeal ‘one of the hardest chapters of our lives,’ but acknowledge that it also showed them just how important medical awareness.

‘When rare conditions like OI aren’t immediately recognized, families can find themselves in incredibly painful and isolating situations,’ Larson said.

Hadley, now 13, has suffered 148 fractures, including her femur, and undergone 31 surgeries in her lifetime. Her childhood has been severely impacted.

However, she still is able to live life mostly like other 13-year-olds, playing sports and even winning a championship with her wheelchair basketball team. She also enjoys playing the drums.

‘Today, when I look at Hadley – her strength, her determination, the way she shows up with light and joy even after everything she has been through – I’m reminded that her story is so much bigger than those early moments of fear,’ Larson said. 

‘She has turned what started as one of the most terrifying experiences of our lives into a life that inspires and connects with so many people.

‘And that little four-week-old baby they once questioned is now one of the strongest people I know.’