After a 19-month conflict, Diana and Corey Sullivan have returned home with their children following a child abuse investigation they claim was initiated by Dr. Barbara Knox.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The contentious child abuse pediatrician at the core of a First Coast News report, Dr. Barbara Knox, has resigned from the University of Florida. This is confirmed by the separation agreement, which ended her employment on August 15.
Now, the Georgia mother whose situation first brought Knox to our attention is publicly speaking for the first time since she and her husband regained custody of their three young children.
“I’m very grateful to be home,” Diana Sullivan said. “I would never have made it through this without my faith. God has truly been my rock.”
For 19 months, Sullivan was permitted to see her children only under supervision after bringing her infant daughter to a Jacksonville emergency room for a swollen leg, which initiated a child abuse investigation.
“In our story, the most significant aspect is that our children were conceived through IVF… these children were deeply wanted and prayed for,” she stated.
Doctors, including Knox, then head of the First Coast Child Protection Team, concluded her baby’s fractures were from abuse.
When questioned about Knox’s part in the removal of her children, Sullivan responded: “A very large role… She was a key influencer behind the accusations, portraying everything as much worse than it was.”
From Wisconsin to Alaska to Florida, families have disputed Knox’s findings.
“I will say without a shadow of a doubt my child was not abused,” Sullivan said.
“They can’t just keep handing her a medical license without acknowledging what happened in the previous positions,” she continued. “She took milestones from me that I will never get back. She took a breastfeeding mom away from her newborn babies.”
Sullivan says her daughter’s injuries were caused by a medical condition that was undiagnosed at the time. The Department of Children and Families initially sought to terminate her parental rights. A judge later ruled it was in the children’s best interest to return to their parents.
“This will be a trauma for my entire family that time and God can only probably heal,” Sullivan said.
Knox’s resignation comes seven months after nine members of the Child Protection Team called for her removal, citing a toxic work environment and concerns over her handling of abuse cases.
Sullivan says she remembers the moment she learned Knox had signed her separation agreement.
“It was a mixture of happy tears at first, just relief that other families aren’t going to have to encounter that and then…the what if — what if she would have resigned before? Why did we have to encounter her? It was a range of emotions because I know if she had not come into the picture it would not have ended up the way it did,” Sullivan said.
She now hopes Florida’s medical board will fully investigate Knox before she treats other families.
“These children are being removed from loving homes and innocent families going through the worst trauma of their lives,” she said. “And to think about families that don’t have the financial means to fight for their kids and just have to give up — it has to stop somewhere. Someone has to stop being scared.”
Sullivan says she will not stop speaking out.
“I will always fight for answers,” she said. “There’s no way I will be able to know this world exists now and other families could be going through this. If I could do anything to advocate and make a change, I will be doing it.”
First Coast News has repeatedly reached out to Dr. Barbara Knox for comment. She has not responded.
You can read more about Knox’s separation agreement with the University of Florida here.
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