As a pediatric emergency room physician working in all three of Atlanta's major pediatric emergency departments, I am gravely concerned with our ability to protect abused children.

Significant problems continue to plague our legal system and child protective services.

Just this month, a 5-week-old baby boy was taken to the hospital crying with a painfully swollen leg. When asked what had happened, the caretaker repeatedly denied any injury to the baby, accidental or otherwise.

The pattern of injury involved the long bone of the leg and was "textbook" for the type of injury noted in child abuse or child maltreatment cases. Common sense tells you 5-week-old babies do not walk and therefore do not sustain this type of injury, unless they are in a car accident or suffer some other kind of severe trauma.

Clearly, the injury was a reason to suspect child abuse. As required by law, the hospital contacted the police and the Department of Family and Children Services.

Unfortunately, the detective handling the case disregarded the impassioned pleas of the involved physicians to protect the child, and left the case unresolved, choosing rather to believe the caretaker's story, which had since changed but still did not explain the injury. Fortunately, DFACS had taken the child into custody for 72 hours while the baby was hospitalized for his injuries.

When I heard that the police were cavalier about the case, I contacted the detective's supervisor, went to the police department and issued another strong statement voicing my concerns. This time they listened to my suspicions, and immediately contacted DFACS to make sure the child stayed in protective custody. I called DFACS and let them know that the child needed continued protection and should not be released back to the caretaker in question.

I was extremely upset that protecting this child took so much diligence from the physicians.

Georgia Senate Bill 315 would obviate the need to go to these great lengths. It would give doctors the authority to take temporary protective custody of children they suspect have been abused or neglected.

The legislation would require the physician to report the suspected abuse to police and juvenile court authorities within 24 hours. A hearing would then be held before a juvenile court intake officer.

Too often, I raise concerns, only to have them disregarded by poorly trained and overworked DFACS employees or police officers. The babies have come back dead or permanently damaged. The people who work in our emergency rooms deserve to be able to protect the children they see who have been abused.

Police, detectives and judges are often not specifically trained in child maltreatment, and therefore, they sometimes fail to recognize injury patterns evident to highly trained medical professionals.

In order for the system to really change, the General Assembly should pass S.B. 315 and protect these babies and follow it up by really putting money into areas that need it.

The state should hire enough caseworkers, give them training and then pay them well for their expertise. Finally, we should have specific detectives, attorneys and judges who are educated in child maltreatment, and let them hear these cases.

The judicial lottery system leaves a lot to be desired when certain judges have little or no formal training in child abuse.

Dead and injured children leave lasting impressions in my heart. Their crying haunts me.