by Oof_too_Humid
Medical establishment & government are working zealously to appropriate parental rights and to impose nonessential medical procedures. Illinois DCFS had a policy that if parents refused Vitamin K shots for their newborns, the child would be taken immediately & returned only after investigation. Here’s the kicker: the policy had already been rescinded but they still took the baby.
Read to the bottom about how another woman who had just given birth called the police to stop the doctors from taking her newborn. (The police actually helped this lady out and told the doctors to knock it off.)
via chicagotribune:
In the moments after Angela Bougher gave birth last winter, she and her husband, a suburban Chicago pastor, were eager to hold their new baby girl.
But as Bougher was being treated in the delivery room, the couple contends, a nurse picked up the infant to administer a vitamin K shot, a common practice in maternity wards across the country to help a baby’s blood-clotting ability in case of emergency.
The Boughers said they are not “anti-vaxxers” or against any procedure they believe to be medically necessary, but they didn’t think the shot was in that category. They had agreed to sign a waiver confirming their wishes that the new baby — their fifth child — not receive vitamin K, based on their beliefs that God’s creation isn’t automatically deficient or flawed at birth.
But instead of offering them a form, the Boughers allege, the nurse announced she was reporting the couple to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and left the room with the newborn. It would be about 12 hours before they got the child back, the couple said.
“I honestly could not understand what was going on,” Angela Bougher said through tears in a recent interview. “I was in total shock. I’ve never not had my baby right away.”
The episode was the result of a controversial DCFS policy that classified parents’ refusal of their newborn’s vitamin K shot as medical neglect, a move that thrust the agency into a contentious debate over the rights of parents to make decisions about their children’s care. The policy was rescinded a year ago as agency leaders sought to ensure that DCFS wasn’t “overstepping the boundaries” of state law and determined the shots should not be classified as medically necessary.
“Making that kind of determination falls outside the confines of our statutory and professional mission and judgment,” Beverly “BJ” Walker, then DCFS’ acting director, wrote in an August 2018 memo rescinding the policy. Of 138 families investigated because of vitamin K refusals, officials found evidence of medical neglect in just seven cases, the memo said.
On Monday, the Boughers and several other parents filed a sweeping federal lawsuit accusing the agency, its current and former leaders, a number of doctors and three hospitals of violating their constitutional rights just after the births of their children. Hours that should have been filled with happiness and family photos were instead filled with uncertainty, they said, as children were temporarily taken into protective custody, DCFS caseworkers were called and the parents were made to feel like criminals.
The lawsuit contends DCFS and medical staff broke state and federal law by improperly seizing newborns or threatening to do so, said Richard Dvorak a lawyer for the families. It alleges that doctors continued to coerce parents, citing the inevitability of DCFS intervention, even though they knew the policy had been rescinded. The families said they were traumatized by their experiences and are seeking monetary damages and a stop to the practice once and for all.
The hospitals listed in the lawsuit are University of Chicago Medical Center, Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn and Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox. The hospitals each declined to comment, citing pending litigation.