A sad and chilling story that should have never happened. Child Protective Services is just too powerful and it sounds like they abused that power in this case.
What upsets me is the lack of communication. The parents talked to the police at the second hospital. Clearly demonstrating that they were following through with getting a second medical opinion. The couple even has a medical report from the second doctor.
So what does CPS do? Setup an interview with the parents? Nope. They go to the parents house with the police the next day and just take the child. No investigation, no interviews with the parents or even with the second hospital’s doctors.
The video is worth watching. They show the second doctor’s report that says the child is healthy and active.
CPS workers by and large do what they do out of a love for children. I am confident that they did not decide to take the child just for kicks. They want to spend their budget on children who are actually in danger.
These stories come up now and then, and inevitably there is more to the story. I don’t see any way to judge this without knowing what CPS was working off of.
These stories come up now and then, and inevitably there is more to the story. How can you possibly judge this without knowing what information CPS was working off of?
This is a local story for me and it’s getting a lot of press. I don’t know what to think, to be honest. The baby looks small for 5 months of age and maybe that’s why the CPS is alleging extreme neglect, but he also supposedly has a heart ailment, so who knows. I certainly hope this turns out well in the end.
I fully understand the need to protect children. What bothers me is taking the child first and then the parents have to battle to get it back. It seems reasonable for CPS to interview the parents first and if needed the doctors that saw the baby. Confirm that the child is getting proper care.
Taking a child right out of a mother’s arms is pretty cold. Especially since all the CPS did was put the baby in foster care. This wasn’t a physical abuse case where the child was being beaten at home. It’s a know it all doctor getting upset and filing a CPS report because the parents wanted a second medical opinion. Which apparently the parents did get.
Whatever the other details, the parents really should have gotten a formal discharge from the first hospital, even if it was against doctors’ advice. By taking the baby without a discharge, they pretty much left the hospital with no choice but to report it. NOT that that alone is sufficient reason to later take the baby away from the parents. It’s just that they’d probably have avoided this fate if they’d gotten a discharge. (Though, maybe they’re in line for a good lawsuit, now.)
Another point to remember is that Child Protective SErvices are normally bound by privacy laws. The parents can talk to the media freely and give their views of what has happened; CPS normally cannot say anything to the media about a particular case. This imbalance will usually skew the media reports.
This is a really good point. Now that I think about it, any time you hear about these sorts of things, where children are taken from their homes, you really only hear from the parents and friends/family members of the family at first. If you hear from law enforcement or CPS, it’s usually vague, like “We have our reasons for believing the child was in danger.”
I know someone in the child protective gubment biz. And yes the large majority of the time they do the right thing.
But there are two things I learned from hearing about all this. A large fraction of the department workers NEVER had kids, so a lot of their ideas of how to raise kids were absolute BS and other people in the department that actually had kids had to reign them in.
And, yes, once in a great while “the system” went batshit crazy.
The times I know of when ‘the system’ went crazy, it was due to the local judiciary acting against the opinion of CPS which always sucked for them because CPS can’t defy a judges order to remove a child but no one ever blames the judge if it’s determined later on that the child was improperly taken.
I can tell by your posting history that you read a lot of news stories. I’m guessing you can find just as many or more, right now, that leave you thinking “Why couldn’t anyone do anything to help that child?”
I’m only suggesting in a case like this that a very complete investigation should be carried out first. The news report indicates the CPS simply reacted too a hospital report. That’s in spite of clear evidence that the child was immediately taken to another hospital for a second opinion.
Maybe there still is a problem in the home. They could have spent a few days investigating first and saved the parents a lot of trauma.
I have no problem with CPS acting after an investigation.
Of course if a child is being beaten almost daily then yes, CPS has to act right then. They can’t let the child be harmed while they investigate. But, that doesn’t seem like the case here.
Again, we don’t know why CPS acted as they did, but I assume that they felt there was not time for “a very complete investigation to be carried out first.”
In most (all?) states, you *cannot *take your child out of the hospital AMA (against medical advice), like you can yourself. So yes, leaving while the physician thinks the child is too unstable to transfer, or leaving to take the child home when the physician thinks the child should be under medical care are both automatic protective services calls, and probably you’re going to have security and police involved, too.
I took my daughter out of the hospital AMA 3 days after an appendectomy. She had no complications, no fever, and was able to eat and poop. For some reason that was never explained to me the doctor thought she should stay. We left and there were no security or police involved. Now, this was about 30 years ago, so maybe things have changed.
It seems like CPS is walking a thin line here. Parents have every right to choose their medical care for a baby or child. One doctor recommends surgery and another (similarly qualified) one says it’s not needed. It’s the parents or guardians right to choose for the minor.
Clear neglect is situations where a sick child hasn’t been taken to the Doctor. Or prescribed medicine isn’t given.
But even then it’s a grey area. Your child has a low fever at 3AM? Most parents would administer aspirin or Tylenol and wait a day or two. Rest and push fluids. Check the child’s temp every few hours. That’s what my mom did. Most times the kid is fine within 48 hours. But, any longer than that and the child should be seen by a Doctor. Where is the line for neglect? Two days? Three days? Four days? What level fever? 101, 102? Kids tend to run higher than adults.
102 would be the point where I’d rush a kid to the Doctor. If they weren’t better by the third morning then I’d have the child at the Doctor that afternoon. But every parent has to make this judgement for themselves. Within reason of course.
