When Georgia parents Corey and Diana Sullivan took their three-month-old daughter, Amelia, to the hospital, they had no idea that within 24 hours, their children would be removed from their home due to false allegations of child abuse. Diana spoke with RedState about the family and their ongoing fight to get their children back.

Corey and Diana met in middle school and married at 21, then spent 16 years trying to have children. Through in vitro fertilization (IVF), they finally succeeded, welcoming (now) four-year-old Arabella and eleven-month-old twins Amelia and Christian. "We were elated to find out that we were having twins," the mother recalled.

Unfortunately, they would soon find themselves in an ordeal that several other Georgia families have experienced.

Born on July 2, 2023, Amelia was released from NICU on August 11, 2023, had a pediatrician appointment on September 13, 2023, and went to the emergency room on October 1, 2023. 

While Diana was pregnant with the twins, she experienced a series of complications. While Christian’s growth was normal, Amelia struggled with low protein levels and struggled to gain weight. Doctors warned that a natural birth could crush Amelia’s bones, leading to a C-section delivery on July 2, 2023. When Amelia was born, she weighed only three pounds and was kept in NICU for 40 days while suffering from several maladies.

According to the doctor’s report, Amelia had “intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR)” and also “anemia and low platelets” when she was born. “She was severely malnourished in the womb and this stunted her growth and limited bone mineral deposition,” the report explained.

On October 1st, the parents noticed that Amelia was vomiting uncontrollably and had swelling in her right thigh. “We decided to take her first to the emergency room, and my mother came over to watch our other two children,” Diana said. “They did an X-ray, and they said that her femur was broken.” Only 24 hours later, Corey and Diana would be accused of abusing their daughter, and their children would be taken from them.

She said the doctors were “very much in shock, not understanding how a three-month-old baby can have a broken femur.”

This is when “everything changed," according to Diana.

The doctors at the local hospital were unable to handle pediatric fractures, so they flew Amelia to Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, where the situation took a turn for the worse. Upon arriving, Amelia was taken to have a full examination. The emergency room doctor came into the room with Corey and Diana and said they found 12 rib fractures “in various stages of healing.”

Diana asked how this was possible when they had only taken Amelia in for a swollen leg. The doctors appeared to dismiss the parents’ concerns about what could have caused the injuries. “I tried to then start explaining our complications during the pregnancy."

The doctors countered by claiming Amelia’s prior health issues couldn’t have anything to do with the injuries they saw. “They were just trying to get an answer that I was not willing to give them … and I think that’s all they wanted to hear at that point,” she recalled.

The doctors decided to admit Amelia into the hospital. One of the nurses told Diana to go home and get Christian because “twins should never be separated.” However, it appears there was an ulterior motive for having the parents bring Christian to the hospital.

“So my husband ran home to get our son and to get him with an overnight bag. And then at that point, when my husband pulled into the parking deck, I don't know if it was a coincidence or not, a case worker from Florida popped her head in and said, ‘When your son gets up here we’re taking him to the emergency room to be tested for non-accidential trauma.’ I think at that point is when it clicked, we're under investigation. They're not trying to find out what's wrong with Amelia. They're trying to prove that we did something to Amelia.”

Diana was right.

The next morning, Dr. Barbara Knox, a Child Abuse Physician, spoke with Corey and Diana in the hospital. She claimed Amelia had been abused by her parents. The doctor claimed Amelia had a Grade 3 liver laceration and was supposedly bleeding internally, something the other doctors had not previously indicated. Indeed, the doctors continually gave inconsistent explanations for Amelia’s condition, from a femur fracture to rib fractures. They did not allow either of the parents to see any of the X-rays and other records as the result of their examination.

Knox, similar to the other doctors, dismissed Diana’s explanation of Amelia’s prior health issues, claiming that the only way the baby could have sustained these injuries “is if someone picked your baby up and punched her repeatedly in the abdomen” or “drop-kicked your baby across the room” Diana said, quoting the doctor.

At this point, Diana became upset and was removed from the room. Between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., she was feeding Amelia when a CPS worker “barged in the room” with an armed security officer and “literally ripped [Amelia] from my arms while I was feeding her.” They told the mother she had to gather her belongings and leave the hospital.

On the same day, after returning to Georgia, the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services (DFACS) took over the case. They removed Amelia and her two siblings from the home and placed them in foster care.

Corey was later arrested and charged with two felonies: Aggravated Battery and Cruelty to Children in the first degree. During the first court hearing to determine whether Corey and Diana could be reunited with their children, the parents testified about Amelia’s prior health issues and the complications Diana experienced while giving birth. The court would not allow the child’s medical records to be introduced.

The prosecution presented multiple experts who work with the state. They each affirmed that the parents had abused their child despite not having looked at her prior health records. “Everyone was just confirming what the others had said. No one had … an independent opinion. Everyone was just in agreement with the report.”

Additionally, the Sullivans attempted to get genetic testing for Amelia to further prove that she had underlying conditions. However, the court only allows testing through a state-selected lab and geneticist. "We paid $3,500 to have a whole exome sequencing, which is 20,000 genes to be looked at. But the way this lab works, they actually only look at genes that are relevant to the clinical data submitted by the geneticist,” Diana said.

Despite the lack of Amelia’s records, the defense did provide testimony from a geneticist who suggested that her injuries could be attributed to her intrauterine growth retardation and other complications. The doctor also pointed out that the fractures could be related to demineralization rather than physical trauma. The geneticist also explained that calcium was pulled from her bones to regulate her body and that there were no CML fractures, as the other doctors had claimed.

However, the judge ruled against the couple. “Essentially, we lost. We got non-reunification .. even though I feel like our geneticist did an excellent job on explaining her condition and even aged a majority of the fractures back to NICU.”

Diana explained that she found out later that the judges in her county “side with the state 90 percent of the time.”

Diana told RedState that the DFACS would not allow Amelia to be examined by any medical professionals who are not part of their system. This was the case with other parents whose children were taken from them under false allegations of child abuse by Georgia’s child protective service.

Currently, the Sullivans are still without their children and are still working to clear their names and get their children back. "We spent 16 years and our entire life savings to have our children, and within 24 hours, they were taken from us. We're fighting not just for our family, but for justice and to show that sometimes the system gets it wrong. We won’t stop until our children are back home where they belong,” Diana said.