Another medical kidnapping in Massachusetts
On behalf of Johnson, Sclafani & Moriarty, Attorneys at Law posted in Child Custody on Thursday, June 18, 2015.
A Massachusetts couple was in the midst of a move to Alabama to reside near the husband’s relatives. The mother wound up delivering six weeks prematurely in Mobile, Alabama.
As is the case with premature babies, the infant was transferred to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Meanwhile, her mother struggled to pump enough breast milk to sustain her baby, but was unsuccessful and had to switch to formula.
The baby’s reflux caused her to need IV fluids. There was a period where pediatricians attempted to find the right formula that the baby could digest. Once they discovered the right one, she began to gain weight.
At a Massachusetts WIC appointment, the pediatrician refused to authorize a supply of that formula, instead switching her to a kind that exacerbated the reflux and caused her weight loss. He reportedly told the mother “he was the one [with] a medical degree, and she was a first-time mother.” He also turned the parents in to the Department of Children and Families for “not feeding their child,” omitting his role in refusing to prescribe one of the two formulas the baby could tolerate.
When they relocated to Alabama, the DCF officials tracked them down, ordering them to return to Massachusetts even after an Alabama social worker with the state’s equivalent agency cleared the parents after a home study.
An investigator from the Massachusetts DCF allegedly informed the parents that there were concerns about the baby’s weight loss. The parents allege they were threatened with criminal charges unless they made the 1,500-mile trip back north.
Problems only increased from there. The baby was taken from them even after another county’s caseworker recommended their case be closed. When the other investigator insisted on a hospital’s clearance, the baby passed that as well.
Just as in another well-publicized Massachusetts case, the DCF demanded the infant be transferred to Boston Children’s Hospital. After further egregious events at the hands of DCF, the baby is now allegedly being put up for adoption.
A scenario such as that is nearly unfathomable, and yet it happens. In cases where the DCF seizes custody, parents need a firm and knowledgeable legal advocate in their corner to do battle with them to protect their parental rights.
Source: medicalkidnap.com, “Another Medical Kidnapping at Boston Children’s Hospital: Baby Seized Over Formula Disagreement,” June 12, 2015
