LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa. — Reporter Dyan Neary attended a Lehigh County commissioners’ meeting in 2023 and watched as dozens of parents said local doctors had falsely accused them of abusing their children and torn their families apart.
Many of the speakers pointed to pediatrician, Dr. Debra Esernio-Jenssen, who at the time led Lehigh Valley Health Network’s John Van Brakle Child Advocacy Center. They said her diagnoses of child abuse — often made with little medical justification — had led to wrongful separations and trauma.
Now, more than two years later, at least 27 families in Pennsylvania are suing Esernio-Jenssen and LVHN, accusing the health network and its former doctor of negligence, fraud and emotional distress.
Neary’s new podcast, The Preventionist, revisits that meeting and delves into the broader story. The series traces Esernio-Jenssen’s decades-long career across multiple states, exploring how her work — and the field of child abuse pediatrics itself — became the center of an ongoing national debate.
Neary’s reporting uncovered a pattern of similar complaints stretching back 30 years, from New York to Florida to Pennsylvania. The final episode follows one mother’s fight to reunite with her children after Esernio-Jenssen’s findings led to their removal — an incident that raises difficult questions about how doctors and caseworkers make life-altering decisions when the signs of abuse are unclear.
Esernio-Jenssen, who began working part time at LVHN in fall 2023, retired from the network in March 2024. Her retirement came months after Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley released a report highlighting what he called a trend of child abuse misdiagnoses under her leadership.
“As Dr. Jenssen steps into retirement, it’s a pivotal moment for us to embrace change,” Pinsley said at the time. “This is an opportunity to innovate and strengthen our community’s health and safety protocols.”
Parents’ Medical Rights Group, a Lehigh Valley nonprofit formed by local families who say they were wrongfully accused of abuse, also welcomed her departure — but said it did not go far enough.
“Allowing years of widespread harm to children and families is unacceptable,” the group said in a March 2024 statement. “We encourage all those in leadership roles to stop staying silent and to start using your voice, as these children and families did, to protect our community from ever having this widespread harm happen again. No more silence.”
The lawsuits filed last year allege that LVHN hired Esernio-Jenssen in 2014 despite being warned she had been removed from the Child Protection Team at the University of Florida for photographing a naked child who was a witness in a case. Plaintiffs accuse her of separating families, damaging reputations and refusing to retract false abuse findings even when confronted with evidence.
“Families were irreparably torn apart because of these accusations and reputations permanently ruined,” one of the filings states.
LVHN, which is among nearly 20 defendants listed in the class action suit, has not commented on the litigation. The network has previously defended its doctors, saying they are required by law to report suspicions of child abuse.
“At Lehigh Valley Health Network, we are guided by our mission to heal, comfort, and care for the people of our community,” spokesperson Jamie Stover said in a 2024 statement. “Early recognition of abuse can be lifesaving and our clinicians remain committed to caring for and protecting our patients.”
As of October 2025, LVHN has not responded to new requests for comment.
The Preventionist is available on major podcast platforms.
