Current Events · Fostering the Future Podcast

Crisis in Georgia - The Hernandez Story

·58 min·3 clips

Jennifer says Emma's x-rays and blood work pointed to vitamin D deficiency, not the original abuse theory.

1. Current Events covers the Hernandez family case from Georgia, centered on foster mom Jennifer's account of Emma, Taki, Matt, and DFACS. 2. Jennifer is a Georgia foster mother and parent advocate, and Jack and Christy host her because she has firsthand experience with child welfare and the case. 3. The episode asks how a child protection system can move from a swollen baby to months of separation, court fights, and disputed medical findings. 4. Jennifer says she grew up in Florida around her parents' foster care and later chose to foster, adopt, and support reunification. 5. She describes the Hernandez family as a married couple with a three-year-old and a brand new baby who had a swollen right leg and a swollen skull at about 12 weeks old. 6. Their pediatrician sent them to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta for x-rays and blood work, where staff reported multiple ribs in different healing stages and a leg fracture. 7. Jennifer says the hospital wrapped Emma's leg in a soft splint and gave children's Tylenol, which did not match the image of a severely battered baby. 8. She says the state moved quickly to custody, separated the parents, and later allowed only supervised visits while the aunt and uncle cared for the girls. 9. Jennifer says Taki was then arrested, and later a bond order kept her from texting Matt or communicating with her children for almost 10 months. 10. She says a judge finally allowed visits again in December 2023, after the state said it was preparing to indict both parents. 11. Jennifer says a DFACS meeting, multiple directors, and regional staff left her with the impression that one child abuse pediatrician's word overrode other questions. 12. She says the parents were blocked from some medical records and later learned Emma had very low vitamin D when she was discharged from the hospital. 13. Jennifer argues that Emma's x-rays looked more like lesions and cupping consistent with rickets or vitamin D deficiency than the state's original theory. 14. She says two specialists in October, a forensic pathologist and a geneticist from Florida, gave testimony supporting a vitamin D explanation. 15. She also says Children's Healthcare of Atlanta ran only two genes for osteogenesis imperfecta, while she says that condition requires testing many more genes. 16. Jennifer says she and her husband saw a caseworker speak as if TPR paperwork was already written, which deepened their concern about bias in the case. 17. The conversation is direct and angry at times, with Jack and Christy pushing on how DFACS, law enforcement, and hospital specialists held power in the case. 18. The format is an interview with a long case narrative, courtroom details, and repeated examples from Jennifer's foster care work. 19. People interested in Georgia child welfare, foster care, and family court disputes would likely follow this closely. 20. Listeners looking for light conversation or a quick celebrity interview will probably skip it.

As heard by us

A skeptical child-welfare case study about power, records, and how certainty takes hold.

This episode follows a Georgia foster mom, with hosts who know child welfare and a guest advocate, through a dispute over an abuse finding and the reach of the system behind it.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Follow one Georgia foster-care dispute from blocked medical records to agency power.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Current Events