DENTON COUNTY, Texas — A Corinth, Texas mom accused by Child Protective Services of abuse by neglect, will have to wait at least one more week to learn if she will regain custody of her 2-year-old son.
Medical professionals took the witness stand in a Denton County courtroom for a second round of testimony in an adversary hearing Wednesday morning. Judge Bruce McFarling in the 362nd District Court is tasked with deciding the fate of Joslyn Sanders and her son.
Sanders is accused of starving her son. Social workers say Sanders left Children's Medical Center in Dallas twice against medical advice, once in March of 2023 and again in December of 2023, the second time when the boy suffered a head-to-toe rash, swollen hands and feet, the loss of most of his hair: symptoms that doctors at Children's determined were caused by severe malnutrition. Graphic photos of the boy's condition late last year were shown in court Wednesday morning.
Sanders has stated she only objected to the use of specific antibiotics that doctors recommended: clindamycin because she had read about serious side effects and keflex because she is personally allergic to it. She claims she left the Children's emergency room on December 20 seeking alternative treatments and a second opinion. CPS workers arrived at her home the next afternoon to take the child, under court order, back to Children's where the mom was denied access and the boy was treated for more than two months. Pediatricians testified that the course of treatment included the antibiotic clindamycin via IV. Doctors from the hospital have testified that they believed the boy was at risk of infection, sepsis, and death.
In the first week of testimony, UT Southwestern pediatrician Dr. Suzanne Dakil testified that the boy suffered from protein-calorie malnutrition and that "without intervention, this child would have died of malnutrition."
Dr. Randy Naidoo of Shine Pediatrics, where the family had initially sought care, testified however that he believed the child had low zinc levels and eating issues after breastfeeding ended.
"You have data outside of a parent being neglectful, the family has shown complete empathy, they kept appointments, this is not a family who has been neglectful," he testified.
Additional nurse practitioners from Shine Pediatrics took the stand Wednesday morning on the second day of the adversary hearing.
They testified the mom told them initially that the skin rash was likely contact dermatitis caused by an allergic reaction to a new laundry detergent. A nurse practitioner testified that she was the one who highly recommended on December 20 that they take the boy to Children's Dallas for a series of blood tests to determine what the problem really was.
On Wednesday, Judge McFarling said he will take a final day of testimony next Tuesday before making his decision. Joslyn Sanders and her attorneys say she will take the stand in her own defense.
"Yes sir," she said after this Wednesday's hearing in Denton. "I look forward to sharing my testimony on Tuesday and bringing everything to the light so that justice will be served and I'll be returned back with my son." As a paraplegic who says it was a miracle that she was able to get pregnant and successfully carry her son to term, Sanders says she would never intentionally harm her son.
Since the 2-year-old boy was released from the hospital, the mom has only had 1-hour supervised visits once a week at the home of a distant family friend currently tasked with caring for the child as he recovers. On Wednesday morning the judge did agree to increase the frequency of those visits to 3-times a week.
An adversary hearing gives a family a chance to plead their case and gives CPS an opportunity to convince a judge that a child should remain in their protective custody until a parent demonstrates they do not pose a danger to the child.