Investigators said Quentin and Alandria Seabron’s two-month-old daughter had unexplained bone fractures. The mother found an answer in a search engine, but was arrested.
Alandria Seabron remembered waiting nervously for her husband to get the message. She discovered a trick on social media to write on a mirror where the steam reveals words on a mirror.
Before Quentin Seabron got home from work, she wrote life-changing words and waited for him to show up. Everything was normal until the music Quentin played suddenly stopped.
“And I don’t know how she did this, but she wrote it while the mirror was steamed up on the wall on the mirror: I’m pregnant,” Quentin Seabron said.
Alandria Seabron can laugh about it now, but her joy streamed down in tears that day.
“I’m in there crying because I’m like, I wasn’t ready. I didn’t think it was going to happen like right then,” she said. “But no, we were super excited.”
The couple married on August 31, two years ago. Jirah Seabron was born on September 7, 2024. According to them, she had no major medical issues and was perfect.
“And so she would lay on my chest or, you know, she would lay on his arms or just anything. She liked to touch skin. It was just her way of like bonding,” Alandria Seabron said.
A difficult night and a shocking discovery
There was an issue that became prevalent during breastfeeding. Jirah, her parents said, was having problems latching to her mother’s nipple. Plus, the young mother said she was overproducing milk. At the advice of an expert, Alandria Seabron cut back on feeding because Jirah wasn’t gaining weight from her mother’s current production.
On the night of November 15, the couple said things got messy as they watched the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight. Alandria said milk started going everywhere, even with the assistance of a latching device.
“The milk was going from the front to the back, like all the way coming out of every direction of the nipple guard,” Alandria said. “And it’s also flowing into her mouth at the same time. So I kind of moved her really quick, just moved her quickly.”
The parents said when they changed the baby’s milk-soaked clothing, her arm was limp. They decided to take her to Children’s Health in Dallas from Mansfield.
“In my head, I thought that it was probably just a dislocated arm. So they took her to the X-ray room and X-rayed her and the guy; he said, ‘She has a broken arm,'” Quentin Seabron said. “And like any other mother and father, we were surprised at that because how in the world does my child have a broken arm?”
Hospital concerns lead to CPS involvement
According to the couple, they felt like the hospital staff changed as the parents said their two-month-old daughter’s charts revealed deficient vitamin D levels, increased alkaline phosphatase, and abnormally high parathyroid hormones.
But they could not explain the baby’s broken arm to the child abuse pediatric team. The Seabrons said they were talking to Texas’ Child Protective Services by Saturday afternoon.
“We grew up in a Christian household, and we’re not the type to do anything that defiles what God has put on us,” Quentin Seabron said.
Parents contest child abuse allegations and seek answers
Reluctantly, the couple signed over their parental rights. Alandria said she found the possibility of infantile rickets on her cell phone’s search engine. Their rights were still revoked.
Jirah was able to live with her paternal grandmother. Her parents got visitation three to four days a week, doctor’s visits, and church on Sundays.
Children’s Health in Dallas said in a statement about Jirah’s case:
“Our top priority is the health and well-being of all our patients. Due to patient privacy concerns, we do not discuss the status of individual patients”
CBS News Texas did not get an answer about the role of child abuse pediatricians from Children’s Health: How many are on staff, and, in the most general sense, what would trigger a CPS call?
Separately, Child Protective Services said, “Details about CPS cases are confidential, but we are complying with the court’s orders.”
The Seabrons said they sought a second opinion at Scottish Rite for Children in Dallas. The couple claimed the doctor never examined a lab or removed the baby from the car seat.
In a statement about that claim, Scottish Rite said that due to HIPAA, “No health care provider can confirm or deny the care or treatment of any patient.”
Just before Thanksgiving, the Mansfield Police arrested Alandra Seabron for injury to a child—a felony.
“I don’t know if anyone knows, but it’s very difficult for a husband to drive his wife to jail. It’s very difficult,” Quentin Seabron said.
Legal battle begins following mother’s arrest
The couple hired Shelly Troberman-Miller out of Austin, who has become a specialist in cases some call medical kidnapping.
“The problem is, we have to do better. The hospital needs to do better,” Troberman-Miller said. “I mean, imagine losing the whole or most of the first year of your infant’s life for something you did not do. It is horrible.”
Troberman-Miller helped the couple assemble a team of experts to support what Alandria Seabron, her search engine, the baby’s existing pediatrician, and an endocrinologist suspected. They believed Jirah had infantile rickets; the vitamin D deficiency, her darker hue, and now, paternal family medical history supported.
“The initial labs were so clearly indicative of a child who had some issue with bone health that should not have been ignored,” Troberman-Miller said.
Medical privacy prevents hospitals from telling CBS News Texas anything about the labs or how deeply doctors did an examination.
“I have been absolutely shocked at the sheer number of truly innocent people that are finding themselves in this position,” Troberman-Miller said. “And not just that we later prove that they’re innocent, but many of them, it should have been very obvious to these very prestigious children’s hospitals, much earlier on what they were dealing with, was not child abuse.”
Tarrant County Judge John Eck would have to decide if Jirah could return home. In the meantime, the Seabrons found friends who had experienced the same circumstances.
Nemari Rivas came to support. She and her husband were in the same courtroom two years ago, trying to regain custody of their triplets. The couple was accused of abuse because doctors allegedly misdiagnosed her son’s eye disease. Rivas was a CPS caseworker.
“Yes, fighting to prove your innocence. You’re fighting for your children, your marriage,” Rivas said. “You’re just fighting for everything. In my case, I work for the department.”
Other parents share painful accounts
Platforms like Fractured Families and Parents Behind the Pinwheels share painful accounts.
Holly Simonton, founder of Parents Behind the Pinwheels, posts stories of parents facing child abuse accusations that stem from medical visits. She said platforms have become overwhelmed with the stories. Simonton skipped through a similar ordeal with her son Hudson, where she was accused. She said there is a confirmation bias and a fear of going against pediatric investigators.
“A lot of different hospitals around here won’t even get involved if they know the child abuse pediatricians team has given a diagnosis of abuse,” Simonton said. “They won’t even give a second opinion. Or if they do, it’s not a thorough one. They just kind of end up deferring to the child abuse pediatrician who’s seen as the state’s expert.”
The Seabrons spent 10 uninterrupted weeks with Jirah before the abuse allegations. Alandria said she just wants to know her baby will be healthy, even as the felony charge hangs over her head.
“This is as destructive to families as missing abuse in certain cases, right? I mean, if you don’t have a lot of money to defend yourself with highly qualified experts, you aren’t getting your baby back,” Troberman-Miller said.
Return of custody amid ongoing legal concerns
Judge Eck returned custody to the Seabrond. The Tarrant County District Attorney offered no comment on where the injury to child case stood. Troberman-Miller was hired for the custody case, not the criminal case.
Troberman-Miller said that in most cases, the charges get dropped.
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