You don’t have the right!

Recently a CA couple had their child taken away for not following the rules.  What rules?  The rules that are made up on the spot by the MD’s and hospital administrator’s when you bring your baby in for concerns over illness.

Perhaps you have heard the story?  The child had flu like symptoms, and was admitted into the ICU at the hospital.  This might seem like overkill, but the child has a history of a congenital heart defect, so there is some history here, and perhaps the hospital staff is trying to be pro-active.  But read this excerpt from the story posted on “Opposing View Website“.

Soon after checking in, a nurse walked into the room and gave Sammy an antibiotic shot. Anna asked the nurse why she had given the baby a shot, but the nurse could not provide a clear response to the concerned mother.

“I asked her, ‘For what is that?’” Nikolayev said. “And she’s like ‘I don’t know.’ And then I said ‘You’re working as a nurse and you don’t he know what you’re giving my baby?’”

Nikolayev spoke with a doctor who confirmed that the baby should not be given antibiotics. The doctor then told Nikolayev that the medical staff needed to perform open-heart surgery on the baby. But Nikolayev was not comfortable with letting the same medical staff that had wrongly given her child antibiotics operate on his heart.

So far, it all makes sense.  A mistake is made, and you decide you aren’t eating at this restaurant again.  Right?  I would think this makes sense for everybody at this point, so lets look further in the story, and see what happens.

The Nikolayev’s rushed Sammy out of the hospital without a proper discharge in order to seek a second medical opinion. They drove across town to Kaiser Medical Center in Sacramento.

At Kaiser Medical Center, the medical staff said there was no need for heart surgery and then proceeded to release the infant Sammy back into the care of his parents. But, police showed up at the hospital before the Nikolayev’s went home. Apparently, medical staff from the first hospital, Sutter Memorial, called the police saying the Nikolayev’s had placed their son’s life in danger by checking him out without a doctor’s approval. The Nikolayev’s were forced to show police a note from a doctor at Kaiser Medical Center that read “I do not have concern for the safety of the child at home with his parents.”

At this point, the police saw the child was ok, saw the note from an MD at Kaiser, and left, telling the family to have a good day.  WOW!  Can you imagine how you would feel in the moment you knew that the police had come for you under suspicion of poorly caring for your children?  Who has the right to question your authority over your children?  If in a state of sound health?

Well, the events of this episode were just getting started.  Read on:

Two days later, the police stormed into the Nikolayev’s home. The knocked over husband Alex in the driveway. “I was pushed against the building, smacked down,” Alex said. “I said, ‘Am I being placed under arrest?’ He smacked me to the ground and yelled out ‘I think I got the keys to the house!’” 

When Anna heard what was happening in the driveway, she quickly set up a video camera in the living room. At least four police offers are seen on the video, barging into the home without a search warrant demanding that the baby be turned over.

“I’m going to grab your baby, and don’t resist, and don’t fight me, okay?” one officer can be heard saying to Anna on the recording.  

 

From what I can tell, these parents followed the hospital administration process right up until they left without discharge.  Well guess what, it is my RIGHT if I want to be discharged by your administration, or if I want to leave.  And if I don’t want to wait for your slow process of paperwork and bureaucracy, then I surely shouldn’t have to.  I am a consumer, and you (hospital) are a business trying to secure my consumption.  You are not a policy maker, nor part of the law.

This story enrages me.  It absolutely provokes me to a point of fury.  I have not vaccinated my children at all, nothing.  Nada.  And in addition, I haven’t given my kids one drop of medication other than Ansley for her broken leg… three days total.  Brooke has had nothing.  These are my decisions, and I am protected in those, even though there have been times that a medically educated health official would have thought for sure I was taking my daughters’ health for granted.

I won’t take the time to write the details of those stories now.  The reality is that if I was given the opportunity to argue the scientific evidence of my way, vs. theirs, I will win.  And I will reference their medical literature along the way.  Sadly, if you haven’t invested your life into understanding this, you will lose that argument, the medical model will prevail with their fear based rhetoric.  And they can threaten to take your child away as well.

Read the concerns of a state lawmaker in reference to this case (whole story):

A state lawmaker has joined the fight demanding answers to why Child Protective Services took a 5-month-old baby from his parents after they took the child to get a second opinion.

Nikolayev’s family’s story got national and international attention, and now that spotlight has led to increased scrutiny of CPS.

“They’ve committed no crime, why are they not just free to determine what is in the best interest of their child?” Assem. Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, asked…

…That higher authority is the Department of Health and Human Services, and Donnelly wrote to the department director when even he failed to get answers from CPS.

“No. I’m not getting any answers. I’m getting this run-around that CPS, whatever they do, they’re allowed to operate in secret, and they’re accountable to no one,” Donnelly said.

Donnelly has also called for a state audit of the agency after hearing from several other parents who described similar incidents.

“I think that we clearly have a government agency, CPS, that does do important work, but they are operating in complete secrecy with absolute autonomy, absolute power,” Donnelly said.

  I am not a conspiracy theorist.  I don’t believe that there is some higher plan of this government, or the CPS division.  I believe they are buying into the rhetoric.  They think they are making wise decisions.  But they fail to realize their place is way over stepped.

Perhaps it is because of recent events like these:

 A couple serving probation for the 2009 death of their toddler after they turned to prayer instead of a doctor could face new charges now that another son has died.

Herbert and Catherine Schaible belong to a fundamentalist Christian church that believes in faith healing. They lost their 8-month-old son, Brandon, last week after he suffered from diarrhea and breathing problems for at least a week, and stopped eating. Four years ago, another son died from bacterial pneumonia.

Prosecutors said Tuesday that a decision on charges will be made after they get the results of an autopsy.

Catherine Schaible’s attorney, Mythri Jayaraman, cautioned against a rush to judgment, and said the couple are good parents deeply distraught over the loss of another child.

“There are way more questions than answers at this point. We haven’t seen the autopsy report. We don’t know the cause of death of this child,” Jayaraman told The Associated Press. “What we do know is Mr. and Mrs. Schaible are distraught, they are grieving, they are tremendously sad about the loss of their most recent baby.”

Again, these parents, like the CPS agency, believe in something that they might not fully understand.  But I will judge CPS first, because the parents have the right to try to effect positive healing in their child how they want (in my opinion).  But perhaps we need to re-read and determine our beliefs.

Ecclesiasticus 38:4 The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth; and he that is wise will not abhor them…  (this from one of the books included in the original King James Bible, later removed… interesting, if in fact it was really part of the Bible)

I hate the medical model.  But I don’t hate medicine.  I believe there are times when they make sense.  But understanding when is difficult, really difficult.  For many impossible.  But there is one simple rule that I believe needs to stand.  A parent has a right to make decisions for their child.  Now, what about those Philadelphia parents whose SECOND child died?  Do they deserve the right to make decisions for their children?  Tough question, feel free to post your thoughts on the blog page.

Be well and be blessed – Dr. E