LVHN doctor at center of medical child abuse debate replaced as protests continue

• By Ryan Gaylor/LehighValleyNews.com

A doctor at the center of protests regarding diagnoses of medical child abuse has been removed as head of Lehigh Valley Health Network’s child advocacy center, it was revealed Thursday.

Dr. Debra Esernio-Jenssen, former leader of Lehigh Valley Health Network’s John Van Brackle Child Advocacy Center, officially was replaced this month by Dr. Sarah Kleinle, according to a statement.

The LVHN statement said Esernio-Jenssen was replaced after “a nearly year-long national search.” Jenssen will continue to practice part time at other LVHN locations, the health system said.

Without mentioning specific clinics or practitioners, the health network previously defended its employees and the criticism.

“Due to the sensitive nature of their work, physicians specializing in child protective medicine are often the unfortunate target of emotionally driven and unsubstantiated criticism,” a LVHN representative wrote in a statement last month.

More than two dozen parents accused of medical child abuse and their supporters who had come to a meeting Thursday to ask Northampton County officials to change to the way such cases are handled celebrated the news.

But they said there is still work to be done.

The latest public action

It was the latest public action by activists from the Lehigh Valley chapter of Parents’ Medical Rights Group, which advocates for people who say they were falsely accused of child abuse.

Nearly all of the speakers at Northampton County Council addressed accusations of medical child abuse, the condition formerly known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy, in which a caregiver induces or fakes an illness in the child they care for, usually for sympathy or attention.

The condition is known by many names, including “factitious disorder imposed on another” or “caregiver-fabricated illness in a child.”

More than two dozen people shared stories Thursday.

Some had been accused of abuse, some were removed from their family as children as a result of abuse allegations, and some were friends of those accused. Several read statements or letters on behalf of someone else.

Last month, many of the same people spoke at a Lehigh County Commissioners meeting, sharing many of the same stories. The following week, members of the group held a protest at Lehigh Valley Hospital’s campus at 17th and Chew streets in Allentown.

Speaker after speaker singled out Esernio-Jenssen, placing blame for their suffering squarely at her feet.

The Lehigh County Department of Human Services said in a statement last month that it is reviewing a report by the Lehigh County Controller’s Office that raised questions, but are “concerned that this appears to be rather one-sided in its presentation of facts and conclusions.”

Speakers tell similar stories

The speakers Thursday night at Northampton County Council told broadly similar stories. Most began with a parent or caregiver taking a child, often with complex or rare medical issues, to a LVHN hospital or clinic for treatment.

One way or another, Jenssen got involved, and concluded the child was a victim of abuse — usually, that the disease or injury they came to the hospital for was caused or fabricated by their parents.

The children were removed from their parents, and a family was never the same, they said.

Nearly to a person, those who addressed the accusations Thursday blamed Jenssen. One speaker called her a “puppet master;” another called her “ruthless,” another “a predator.”

Several accused her of knowingly, intentionally manufacturing claims against them, and said she ignored evidence that would have contradicted her diagnoses.

“Jenssen gets what Jenssen wants. There is no investigation,” said Kim Steltz, one of the accused parents. “We were pawns in a game.”

“Everything [Jenssen] falsely accused us of, she actually did herself. She manipulated doctors, she lied about what they said, and forced unnecessary procedures on a child,” said Ryan Whitaker of South Whitehall Township, another accused parent.

“There is no judge, no jury, only an executioner,” one anonymous parent wrote in a letter read Thursday night.

The cost of misdiagnosis

After public comment, County Executive Lamont McClure addressed the accusations. He acknowledged the pain expressed, but stopped short of weighing in on the accusations themselves, calling the issue “complicated.”

“Irrespective of the facts tonight, how you could not listen to the pain and the real trauma that you heard in the voices of the people you are in front of and not be empathetic to that pain and trauma, which is very real despite the complicated nature of the subject matter?” McClure said.

“I think we all… do empathize with the pain and the trauma that was on display.”

Last month, Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley issued a report, called “The Cost of Misdiagnosis,” finding “potential systemic overdiagnosis” of medical child abuse in the Lehigh Valley.

It found that while the Northeast region of Pennsylvania includes 11% of the state’s children under 18, it accounts for 40% of the state’s medical child abuse cases diagnosed from 2017-2021.

Lehigh and Northampton counties saw eight cases over that period, including six in Northampton County. Over the same period, Philadelphia County diagnosed seven, despite having more than double the population of Lehigh and Northampton counties combined.

“The reader must understand that our investigation did not reveal a few anomalies attributable to human error,” the report states. “Instead, our analysis showed statistical anomalies suggesting a pattern that requires further investigation.”

While Pinsley didn’t identify a specific clinician or medical group in his report, only LVHN’s John Van Brakle Child Advocacy Center handles medical child abuse cases.

Pinsley spoke at Thursday’s council meeting to clarify his recommended changes to how suspected medical child abuse is investigated, such as requiring a second opinion from a doctor specializing in whatever condition touched off the accusations in the first place.

Also, he recommended writing letters from the council to the hospitals asking them to take action, and hiring an independent third party to review previous medical child abuse diagnoses.

Staff writer Olivia Marble contributed to this report.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Lehigh Valley Health Network is a financial supporter of Lehigh Valley Public Media and a founding supporter of LehighValleyNews.com. LVHN has no influence on our editorial or business operations.