# New mom almost loses baby because of poppy seeds. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 13, 2014, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mom-almost-loses-baby-because-of-poppy-seeds/683599 "2014-03-13T09:54:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mom-almost-loses-baby-because-of-poppy-seeds/683599/21 "2014-03-14T10:01:06Z")
Uh, everybody. Hope I’m not treading into Jr. Modding territory, but . . . I don’t think **aceplace57** started this thread to talk about the sensitivity of drug tests to poppy seeds. I think the intended line of inquiry is more to do with the Recreational Outrage of what happened here. [ul][li] Outrage #1: Hospital does surreptitious drug test (and probably bills patient for it too).[/li][li] Outrage #2: Drug test returns false positive (although, seeming a borderline sort of positive).[/li][li] Outrage #3: Result is described as “unconfirmed” with further stipulation that it should not be used outside the medical setting.[/li][li] Outrage #4: Hospital doesn’t do any kind of confirmatory test.[/li][li] Outrage #5: Hospital drug tests the baby too, and gets negative result (which becomes an outrage because of Item #6).[/li][li] Outrage #6: Despite Outrages #3, 4, and 5, hospital nonetheless reports positive drug test to the Child Protection goons.[/li][li] Outrage #7: Child Protection goons subject family to invasive examinations and inspections, not just once, but repeatedly, and with intimidating demands piled on.[/li][li] Outrage #8: Child Protection goons, once set upon a case, _simply will not give up!_ (ETA: And, allegedly, will keep the case open for the rest of eternity.)[/li][/ul] I get the sense that this is what we should be talking about in this thread. (Perhaps it would have been more clear if OP had started it in The Pit?) ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mom-almost-loses-baby-because-of-poppy-seeds/683599/22 "2014-03-14T11:16:10Z")
It’s ok for threads to drift. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mom-almost-loses-baby-because-of-poppy-seeds/683599/23 "2014-03-14T13:19:40Z")
Besides, since the hospital is actually forbidden by HIPAA to discuss what (actually) happened with the media, we won’t find out anything from their POV unless this goes to court. So speculating is kind of pointless. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mom-almost-loses-baby-because-of-poppy-seeds/683599/24 "2014-03-14T13:41:21Z")
Meanwhile in Connecticut an Indiana couple ODs on heroin while their three- and five-year-old play in McDonald’s. I suppose they will soon be harassed by the Child Protection goons. What to do? You can’t have it both ways. Protecting children is a messy and intrusive business and I suspect we fail more often than not. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mom-almost-loses-baby-because-of-poppy-seeds/683599/25 "2014-03-14T13:44:41Z")
What’s the outrageous thing here? A test raises some red flags. They undertake further actions which ally concerns. She did not “almost lose baby”. What exactly went wrong. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mom-almost-loses-baby-because-of-poppy-seeds/683599/26 "2014-03-14T13:57:38Z")
People really need to read what they’re signing at hospitals. Those blanket consents they give you to sign usually cover any noninvasive test they care to run, including drug tests. There is a line there for you to indicate a specific refusal for a certain test or procedure, but I’ll bet you an imaginary $100 that a mom who writes in, “I decline a drug screening,” will then be on everyone’s radar as a suspected abuse or neglect case. You simply cannot win if you’re giving birth in a hospital. You are not an autonomous individual, you are the bearer of a Citizen of the State, and your rights are completely subordinate to what the doctor feels is best for the fetus. This is the country of restrained c-sections, y’all. A drug test is nothing. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mom-almost-loses-baby-because-of-poppy-seeds/683599/27 "2014-03-14T14:02:31Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > What’s the outrageous thing here? A test raises some red flags. They undertake further actions which ally concerns. She did not “almost lose baby”. > > What exactly went wrong. BECAUSE OH NOES IT WAS A SOCCOR MOM!! THEY DON’T DO DRUGS!!! If one watches just five minutes of “What’s Wrong with Aunt Diane?” on HBO, they’ll see how ridiculous this assumption is. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mom-almost-loses-baby-because-of-poppy-seeds/683599/28 "2014-03-14T14:34:04Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > What’s the outrageous thing here? A test raises some red flags. They undertake further actions which ally concerns. She did not “almost lose baby”. The baby actually was removed from the house for several days. > [@](#): > > What exactly went wrong. They failed to confirm the results of a test that is widely known to produce false positives if someone has consumed a common food item. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mom-almost-loses-baby-because-of-poppy-seeds/683599/29 "2014-03-14T14:52:30Z")
I have not seen anything that her baby was removed from her in the link provided. And they did attempt to confirm the tests, they did not rely on it to make a final decision. I honestly cannot see what they did wrong. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mom-almost-loses-baby-because-of-poppy-seeds/683599/30 "2014-03-14T15:29:01Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > I honestly cannot see what they did wrong. They didn’t do a follow up test of \*her \*urine (or blood) to confirm the results. That’s the crux of it, if you accept that they have the right to do a drug test without express medical indications that she was a drug abuser and without explicit consent to a drug test. Even if the sample was in fact chock full of opiate metabolites beyond the level of poppyseed bread…how certain are we that it was her urine? Samples get mixed up all the time. So not only may they have accidentally made her life miserable, but they may have missed an actual drug abuser in the next room, whose patient ID sticker got slapped on this lady’s urine specimen. Or not. But we don’t know, and apparently they don’t know, either, because they didn’t double check. I can buy pee tests at the dollar store now. That means the hospital spends under a dollar for theirs. They couldn’t spend another dollar before a) making this woman’s life complicated and b) spending a few thousand dollars for a social worker to make multiple home visits? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mom-almost-loses-baby-because-of-poppy-seeds/683599/31 "2014-03-14T15:42:01Z")
ABC gives more information about Rachael Devore’s problems with the child protection agency. Once someone gets reported to them its tough to ever get free. Devore still hasn’t got a letter confirming her case i officially closed. Making her sign that safety plan letter is disturbing. I don’t understand this over reaction to a single failed urine test. It’s a sad reality that there are a lot of people in this country raising kids and using drugs. It would be impossible to remove every child from those homes. Theres just too many kids and the system would be overwhelmed. [http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/mom-sues-failed-drug-test-poppy-seeds-22865452](http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/mom-sues-failed-drug-test-poppy-seeds-22865452) > [@](#): > > Devore told the social worker she didn’t use drugs and, although their daughter’s tests were also negative, the hospital social worker still referred the case to CYF as Devore and the baby were being discharged June 26. > > A CYF caseworker visited the Devores later that day, and scheduled a July 5 inspection of their home. A CYF investigator referred the case to a drug addiction counselor and required Devore to sign a “safety plan” acknowledging she’d surrender her parental rights to her husband if she did drugs again. > > CYF workers inspected the home repeatedly in the coming weeks, and the drug counselor told Devore she planned to recommend future random drug tests, even after Devore passed another urine test. Eventually, the CYF investigator opted not to require the drug tests, though the agency has yet to send Devore a letter confirming her case has been closed. The agency doesn’t comment publicly on child welfare cases. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mom-almost-loses-baby-because-of-poppy-seeds/683599/32 "2014-03-14T17:41:22Z")
How many sources of information are the news reporters using for this story? I don’t believe the hospital or CYF is allowed legally to share their side of the story with anyone, so it sounds to me like they are talking only to the mother who is filing the lawsuit. I’ve got $50 that says once this gets to court we hear a whole different side to this story that makes this woman seem a lot less like your typical soccer mom. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mom-almost-loses-baby-because-of-poppy-seeds/683599.md?page=1)