It doesn’t seem possible that in the United States of America you could have your child taken away simply for disagreeing with a doctor.
But that’s exactly what’s going on all across the country right now.
Parents who dare to question medical care recommended for their kids are being charged with child abuse.
They’re having their custody rights revoked. Their children are becoming wards of the state and are being forcibly given drugs, surgeries and other treatments in what’s becoming known as “medical kidnapping.”
Since I first told you about medical kidnapping last year, the situation has escalated to frenzied proportions. More families have been torn apart and children have been emotionally scarred for life.
And it’s being led by a new class of doctors known as “child abuse pediatricians” who are supposed to look out for kids’ best interests — but have become mainstream medical dictators instead.
What terrible crime did Malik’s grandmother commit? She wondered whether the numerous surgeries the young boy had received were making him any better.
And simply questioning a doctor’s advice… or asking for a second opinion… is enough to get caregivers charged with medical child abuse by the child abuse pediatricians you’ll find in many children’s hospitals today.
Child abuse pediatricians didn’t exist years ago, but they have an important job to do. When children show up at emergency rooms with suspicious bruises, for example, these doctors are supposed to find out whether there’s more to the story.
But lately these physicians — in cahoots with Child Protective Services in many states — have used their power to charge parents with abuse any time they disagree with a doctor’s treatment plan. In many cases, these parents had their children taken away for months or even years at a time.
The practice has “made life hell for too many loving parents,” said University of North Carolina professor Maxine Eichner, who has studied the “alarming rise” in the number of medical child abuse cases and medical kidnappings in recent years.
Researching the cases has been difficult, because most state records lump medical child abuse charges together with all other types of child abuse, like violence and neglect. Still, Eichner has spoken to 95 accused parents in 30 states who have suffered the trauma of being accused of child abuse — and have even lost custody.
Parents have learned the hard way that they can have their children taken away for disagreeing with a doctor, even when another doctor insists the parents are right.
That’s exactly what happened in the case of Justina Pelletier. She was being treated at Tufts University Hospital in Massachusetts for mitochondrial disease (mito), which interferes with your body’s ability to produce energy.
But when she ended up at Boston Children’s Hospital for a gastrointestinal issue, the doctors insisted she had been misdiagnosed. They placed her in a psych ward, refused to let her see her Tufts doctors, and made her a ward of the state.
Justina’s parents had to wage a 16-month legal battle to win custody of their daughter back.
“This should never happen again to anybody,” Justina said.
But, of course, it’s happening again right now in Pennsylvania.
Jessica Battiato took her six-month-old baby Cesar to the Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital this spring to look at his leg. Doctors found fractures, immediately reported her to Child Protective Services and took Cesar into custody.
The state, with help from Hershey Hospital doctors, literally ripped this baby away from his mother. But it turns out Cesar has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which is basically a type of rickets that makes your bones fragile.
Even after testimony from a leading radiologist, Hershey Hospital officials refused to reconsider and Cesar remains a ward of the state.
What can parents do to avoid these baseless and life-changing charges of abuse? One recent article on medical kidnapping carried the headline: “Going to the children’s hospital? Bring your lawyer.”
And as outrageous as that sounds, it may become the new reality for many parents and caregivers. Because there is definitely widespread abuse occurring at many of these childrens’ hospitals right now.
But it’s an abuse of power — being committed by the very medical professionals we should be able to trust.
Sources:
“The new child abuse panic” Maxine Eichner, July 11, 2015, The New York Times, nytimes.com
“Doctors accuse mother of child abuse following emergency hospital visit” July 6, 2015, Fox News, myfoxphilly.com
“Going to the children’s hospital? Bring your lawyer.” Monica Mears, July 15, 2015, Health Impact News, healthimpactnews.com
