Amanda Suranofsky Case: Misdiagnosis, Custody Loss, and LVHN Lawsuit

Amanda Suranofsky’s lawsuit, filed in Philadelphia on January 25, 2024, accuses Lehigh Valley Health Network, one of its child-abuse pediatricians, Northampton County, and the foster-care provider KidsPeace of destroying her family through a wrongful child abuse diagnosis that cost her custody of all five of her children for roughly four years.¹ Most of the criminal charges built on that diagnosis were later dismissed. She pleaded no contest to a single count of reckless endangerment and received no jail time, no probation, and no court fees.²

What Happened in December 2019

On December 14, 2019, Moore Township police in Northampton County were called to what was classified as a “near fatality” involving Suranofsky’s seven-week-old son.³ Suranofsky told police she had been sleeping on a couch with the baby in a nearby bassinet, and woke around 5:30 a.m. to find the infant on the floor. She said her two-year-old had climbed into the bassinet, removed the baby’s clothes, and caused the infant to fall. Police said her account shifted; when EMS arrived, she reportedly gave a different version in which the baby had been in a crib in another room.⁴

The Diagnosis at the Center of the Case

At LVHN, Dr. Ruchita Doshi documented severe injuries: an L-shaped fracture on the right side of the infant’s skull, a Y-shaped fracture on the left, bleeding around the brain in multiple locations, and two sheared veins inside the skull. She classified the injuries as “abusive head trauma” and said only violent shaking or force equivalent to a car crash could explain them.³ Dr. Debra Esernio-Jenssen, who headed LVHN’s John Van Brakle Child Advocacy Center, separately concluded the injuries were “shaken baby syndrome” and recommended that Suranofsky’s children be removed from her custody.⁵

According to Suranofsky’s later lawsuit, a third physician who examined the baby found the head to be normal and suggested the infant’s underdeveloped skull may have made it more vulnerable to a fall. The lawsuit also claimed the classic indicator of shaken baby syndrome — retinal hemorrhaging — was absent.⁵

The Criminal Charges and How They Ended

Suranofsky was formally charged in June 2020 with three counts of aggravated assault, two counts of felony endangering the welfare of a child, simple assault, and reckless endangerment. Police also pointed to cellphone records in which she had expressed frustration about her children and concerns about a potential pill addiction, and to interviews in which older children said they were “afraid of her” and had been spanked.³

The case sat for years. In the summer of 2023, after Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley released a report questioning child abuse diagnoses across the Lehigh Valley, the Northampton County District Attorney’s office offered Suranofsky a plea deal. In early October 2023 she pleaded no contest to one count of reckless endangerment. Every other charge was dismissed, and the sentence carried no jail time, no probation, and no court fees.² A no-contest plea lets a defendant accept the punishment without admitting guilt.⁵

Four Years Without Her Children

Following the abuse diagnosis, all five of Suranofsky’s children were removed from her care and placed with child welfare agencies and foster programs, including the nonprofit KidsPeace.⁵ In late 2023 she regained legal custody of four of them. As of January 2024, she was still working to regain custody of the son who had been injured in 2019.¹

Her lawsuit alleges that two of her children were sexually abused while in KidsPeace foster care.⁵ KidsPeace has faced separate lawsuits from other former residents of its Orefield, Pennsylvania, facility alleging sexual abuse by staff, though those cases involve different plaintiffs.⁶

What the Lawsuit Claims and Who It Names

Suranofsky filed suit on January 25, 2024, in Philadelphia through attorney Tom Bosworth. The complaint names more than 20 defendants, including Dr. Esernio-Jenssen, Dr. Doshi, Lehigh Valley Health Network, Jefferson Health System, KidsPeace, Northampton County, and Northampton County Children and Youth Services.¹

The suit alleges that Dr. Esernio-Jenssen “recklessly” and falsely accused Suranofsky of child abuse, that the diagnosis directly caused her children to be removed for four years, and that two of them were sexually abused in foster care as a result. It seeks damages and asks that LVHN remove Dr. Esernio-Jenssen from her position. Bosworth told reporters that “what we know now is just the tip of the iceberg.”¹

LVHN and Dr. Esernio-Jenssen have denied wrongdoing. The network has said its medical assessments followed best practices and that it did not control the actions of child welfare agencies, police, or prosecutors.⁷ No criminal charges have been filed against Dr. Esernio-Jenssen.⁸

One of Many Similar Suits

Suranofsky’s case is one of a growing number. Bosworth filed two other suits the same month on behalf of Lehigh Valley families making similar allegations against Dr. Esernio-Jenssen: Tyler Mackie-Stuber and Hailey Stuber of Whitehall Township, and Melissa and William Schafer of Easton.⁹ By February 2024, a class-action suit had been filed in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas on behalf of nearly 50 plaintiffs from 12 families. By late 2025, more than two dozen separate lawsuits had been filed against Dr. Esernio-Jenssen and LVHN, with attorney Francis Alexander Malofiy representing dozens of families across multiple filings. Most cases remain in discovery or early pretrial stages.⁷

The Pinsley report that preceded Suranofsky’s plea deal alleged a “systemic overdiagnosis” of medical child abuse in the Lehigh Valley, finding that between 2017 and 2021 the state’s Northeast region accounted for 40% of Pennsylvania’s Munchausen syndrome by proxy cases despite having about 14% of the state’s children. Lehigh and Northampton counties alone accounted for eight of the ten reported cases in that region.¹⁰ The report recommended that child welfare agencies require a second medical opinion from a doctor outside the hospital network that made the initial abuse finding before any child is removed.¹¹

After initially defending Dr. Esernio-Jenssen publicly, LVHN removed her from her leadership role at the Child Advocacy Center; Sarah Kleinle, DO, was appointed as the new medical director in 2023.¹² Dr. Esernio-Jenssen later announced her retirement from the network. Lehigh County also moved the Child Advocacy Center out of the LVHN building, with county officials saying that “recent transitions involving LVHN make this an appropriate time to evaluate how best to serve the community moving forward.”⁸

1
The Morning Call. Lawsuit Filed Against LVHN Doctor Over Alleged Child Abuse Misdiagnosis
2
The New York Times. Serial: The Preventionist, Episode 3
3
The Morning Call. Mother Blames Infant’s Head Trauma on Fall, but Moore Township Police Say She Violently Shook Baby
4
lehighvalleylive.com. Mom Accused of Shaking Baby, Causing 2 Skull Fractures and Brain Bleeding
5
lehighvalleylive.com. Controversial Lehigh Valley Doctor Misdiagnosed Abuse, Had 5 Children Wrongly Taken From Mother, Lawsuit Says
6
WFMZ. 2 More People Sue KidsPeace Claiming They Were Sexually Abused as Children at Orefield Facility
7
The Morning Call. Dozens of Parents Are Suing Lehigh Valley Child Abuse Doctor at Center of New Serial Podcast
8
WFMZ. New Lawsuit Claiming Wrongful Abuse Diagnoses Filed as Esernio-Jenssen Set to Retire From LVHN
9
lehighvalleylive.com. 15 Families Have Sued Lehigh Valley Doctor; 7 More Filed Notice of Intent to Sue
10
WITF. LVHN Tied to Systemic Overdiagnosis of Medical Child Abuse in Lehigh County Report
11
WFMZ. Lehigh Co. Controller’s Report Alleging Child Abuse Misdiagnoses: What Does It Mean
12
6abc. Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy: Lehigh Valley Health Network Lawsuit Misdiagnosis