Jacob Weidner spent the first 12 days of his life on a ventilator in the neonatal intensive-care unit at OSF HealthCare Children's Hospital of Illinois in Peoria. He was diagnosed with meningitis. After his parents, Michelle and David, brought him home, his care included medication through a catheter and near-daily appointments for cardiac, respiratory, bloo- clotting, and infection-related issues. Jacob would eventually be diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder.
When Jacob was about five weeks old, on October 8, 2010, he began vomiting intensely. Michelle rushed him back to OSF HealthCare Children's Hospital's emergency room, where for a few terrifying moments he stopped breathing. Doctors quickly ordered a CT head scan, which seemed to show an acute skull fracture. At that point, a resident called the state's child-abuse hotline, reporting a suspicion that Jacob had been abused. According to Michelle, none of the specialists treating Jacob were consulted before the hotline got the call.
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