Doctors make mistakes. No one physician is correct every time. That is why getting a second opinion is the cornerstone of medicine. It ensures a second set of eyes evaluates the patient when the diagnosis is uncertain, and has been shown to improve diagnostic accuracy.
In Washington State, when child abuse allegations are made, parents are entitled to a second opinion from a physician of their choice to challenge those accusations. I have provided a “second opinion” for some parents over the last few years. But lately I’ve noticed a disturbing trend, when some child abuse experts are all too willing to separate children from their families on the flimsiest of medical grounds. And hospitals are prohibiting “second opinions” as a matter of hospital policy. A lawsuit filed in Hennepin County, Minnesota, sheds light on this alarming trend. Make no mistake, what is happening in Hennepin County is happening everywhere.
Let’s start at the beginning. The federal lawsuit was filed by the family of Sylwia Reynolds, who is accused of second-degree murder in 2018 after child abuse physician, Dr. Nancy Harper, diagnosed Shaken Baby Syndrome as the cause of a baby’s death. This suit alleges that the Hennepin County child protection system engaged in “unconstitutional, unlawful, fraudulent and secret policies, procedures, customs and practices.” The secret policy to which the lawsuit refers is that pediatric doctors at University of Minnesota are prohibited from disagreeing with the opinion of a child abuse doctor that abuse took place. This is a position that more children’s hospitals across the country — including in Washington State — are adopting behind closed doors.
This case interests me because I have evaluated two cases of alleged child abuse in Hennepin County myself in the past two years. Both times, the child protection team was wrong; there was no evidence child abuse occurred in either case. In one case, the child abuse pediatrician fabricated a medical finding in order to prosecute an innocent man.
But the story really begins in 2015. That year, Minnesota Legislature created a $23 million fund to expand child protection services across the state. This fund gave hospitals incentive to investigate, substantiate, and collude in cases where child abuse is alleged. And of course, the reports of child abuse grew by 228% in Hennepin County alone, from 1,739 reports annually before 2015 to more than 5,700 annually after the funding incentives began.
Dr. Nancy Harper is one of the child abuse physicians accused of racketeering and fraud. She is the president of the Helfer Society, a nonprofit organization which created a child abuse “playbook,” which recommends child abuse policies and protocols to hospitals across the nation...
But the story gets worse than that. Hospital policy authorizes Dr. Harper to edit other physician’s notes and reports to ensure they agree with her diagnosis of child abuse, a highly unethical practice. In one case, Harper allegedly destroyed “medical notes and records” that disagreed with her allegations of child abuse. Which begs the question as to why the University of Minnesota would support such “unconstitutional, unlawful, [and] fraudulent” practices?
The bottom line is that the physician who can substantiate the most allegations of child abuse ensures the hospital receives a financial windfall. The hospital, in turn, sets policies which prevents opinions of other physicians from getting in the way of that revenue stream. Now who will hold the physicians and hospitals accountable for the truth? Which brings us back to Hennepin County and $10 million dollar lawsuit filed on behalf of Sylwia Reynolds, who is wrongly accused of murder. She fled to Poland seven years ago and despite the request by the DOJ, Poland’s Court of Appeals denied extradition after determining that Sylwia could not receive a fair trial in the United States.
Poland cannot be the only place to hold hospitals accountable. It has to come from us. And this lawsuit might be the first step.
https://www.kitsapsun.com/story/opinion/columnists/2025/04/12/incentives-that-prevent-a-second-opinion-pose-risk-to-kids/83001211007/
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