A mother of two young girls in Arizona breaks a gag order issued by the court, in the hope that people will come forward and help her and her two daughters, whom she claims are suffering in state custody. She has now been threatened with arrest for breaking her gag order. And this all began simply because she saw her daughters suffering with medical treatment, and wanted to seek a second doctor’s opinion.
Imagine – a teenager taken away from his family because his mother wanted a second opinion on his medical condition and suffering, being put into a foster care home in a rough neighborhood of Chicago and being threatened on the streets with guns, finally being able to return to his home town only to be told weeks later that he has to go back to Chicago, and armed security guards making sure he gets into an ambulance to go back, while the hospital drugs him with a sedative, and then being forced to wear a security bracelet preventing him from leaving the hospital, denying him visitors, and also denying his right to choose the attorney he wants to represent him at 17 years old.
Sound like an action thriller movie? Actually, it is a living nightmare for one family in Chicago, and they need your help.
We have reported on many families’ stories of medical kidnappings here on MedicalKidnap.com. For every story we tell, there are probably 10 more we cannot get to. In almost all of these cases there is massive abuse of power exerted by medical doctors, CPS social workers, and family court judges.
But this story from Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) shows a new level of alleged corruption: CPS caseworkers and a family court judge actually withholding evidence from medical personnel that would have shown their seizure of a child was not justified. Instead, they allegedly relied on a non-medical professional, a CPS caseworker, to take children away from their family based on their own unprofessional medical opinions, ignoring doctor’s advice to the contrary, and even allegedly suppressing that evidence in court.
HSLDA attorneys are fighting back.
“Surprise (Ariz.) police came in, (DCS) came in and told my wife she was going to prison,” the boy’s father told KTAR News on Monday. “They just started threatening her — basically trying to force a confession of something that didn’t happen.”
The family’s attorney, Alane Roby, believes the case was grossly mishandled. According to Roby, the Department of Child Safety has not much different than the original state agency entrusted to protect Arizona’s children.
“Case workers are overworked, underpaid, there’s no accountability. The case workers are generally very young, inexperienced and don’t understand the ramifications of the decisions they make. Children are ripped from their homes, placed in foster care even when family members are available to care for them and often,” Roby said. “The scariest thing in the world is that this could be happening to anyone and they’d be going through the same thing,” Roby said.
Crystal Bentley, 23, entered the Texas foster care system when she was 2 and wouldn’t leave it until she aged out at 18.
In the intervening years, as she was shuffled from place to place, she was repeatedly beaten and sexually abused — sometimes by the adults entrusted with her care, sometimes by their biological children, sometimes by other foster kids or her own relatives, Bentley testified in federal court Wednesday.
A rotating cast of Child Protective Services caseworkers who were supposed to watch out for her safety often didn’t show up for monthly visits, she said. When they did visit, it was usually for a cursory handful of minutes during which they failed to detect what was happening to her.
“I would hint that something was going on, but when they asked me if I was being sexually abused, it was always right there in front of my abusers,” Bentley testified. “What could I say?”
Bentley’s testimony Wednesday came on the third day of a trial in a class-action lawsuit brought by Children’s Rights, a New York-based advocacy group on behalf of 12,000 children in long-term state care in Texas.
The Fourth Amendment strikes a carefully crafted balance between a family’s right to privacy and the government’s need to enforce the law. In most situations, government agents cannot simply force their way into a home. Instead, they must explain to a neutral magistrate why they need to enter the home, and they must provide real evidence to support that need. This rule applies to all government agents. Court after court has agreed that there is no social services exception to the Fourth Amendment.
All too often, law enforcement officers and child-welfare workers act as if the Fourth Amendment does not apply to CPS investigations.
They are wrong.
She delivered the baby naturally at 2:34 a.m., and around noon was put in a room with two other new mothers and their babies, including one who Langwell says kept talking loudly on her cellphone.
Later that afternoon, Langwell decided to check out and go home. Langwell said the baby was breastfeeding well and was healthy, and she preferred to take her home early “AMA” (against medical advice) so they could all get some sleep. When she left, a member of the hospital’s staff called and reported her to the county’s child welfare agency.
The next day, a representative of the child welfare agency in Riverside County, California, took the infant into protective custody.
Marc Herrmann is a teenage boy who desperately wants to go home to his family who loves him, but apparently he cannot. The 17-year-old feels he is trapped in what he sees as a cruel system that won’t let him go, and now he is crying out for help. He says he is just “A child in Canada,” who has no voice, who feels like no one is listening.
He says he is tired of being a medical lab rat for research projects to which neither he nor his parents ever agreed. He has been sending messages written in the third person that have been posted on a Facebook page created by friends of his, called “A child in Canada.” Despite the possible risks to himself in coming forward with his story, he says he is ready for his story to be told. He wants somebody to listen and just let him go home to his family.
Isaiah Rider is 17 years old, and has been in custody of the State of Illinois for several months over a medical dispute. However, for the past several weeks Isaiah was allowed to return home from Lurie Children’s hospital in Chicago to his grandparents’ home in Kansas City, while his mother, a nurse, has fought the State of Illinois to regain custody of her son.
On December 6, 2014, the State of Illinois, allegedly via his guardian ad litem, Kim Boone, forced Isaiah Rider to get into an ambulance and return to Chicago, even though neither he nor his family wanted him to return to the place where he was separated from his family previously, and where he reportedly suffered emotional distress. Isaiah made a very emotional video the night before he was taken away by force in an ambulance. The video has been posted on YouTube.
The Team Isaiah Facebook Page is reporting that Isaiah is confined at Comer Children’s Hospital, is not allowed visitors, and is wearing a “security sensor bracelet” on his wrist. They report that he has even been denied pastoral care by the hospital.
Commissioner Thomas Verge ruled Friday that Cleave and Erica could have their three babies back, after CPS had removed them from their home, as first reported by Health Impact News on our Medical Kidnap website. The original story has been read by over 1.5 million people and shared on Facebook by over 1 million, creating a national outcry. It is but one of many stories we have covered at MedicalKidnap.com. We get multiple requests every day from families begging us to publish their stories of “medical kidnap.”
If we had not picked up this story and published it on behalf of the parents who requested us to do so, would they be going home today with their children?
Judge Verge, in allowing the parents to have their children back, reportedly made several conditions, threatening the young couple that their children would be removed again if they did not comply with his directives.
Health Impact News has just learned that Team Isaiah Facebook Page is reporting that the State of Illinois is transporting Isaiah Rider back to Chicago from Kansas City against his wish and the wish of his family on December 5th.
At this time of year, most families are looking forward to the festive season and preparing for Christmas. However, for one family, Christmas is the last thing on their minds. In the space of just a few months, they report how their lives have been torn apart by Child Protective Services (CPS) in Colorado.
Due to an alleged disagreement over a Lyme Disease diagnosis, their son has been put into State Custody, the father has served time in jail, and the mother is now in hiding due to fear.
Teenager Isaiah Rider has been back in the hospital for more than two weeks. He spent Thanksgiving in the hospital in his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri. However, the state of Illinois still has custody of him, and the hospital behind his “medical kidnapping,” Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, is still allegedly affecting his care, or lack thereof. They are reportedly blocking him from receiving help for his suffering, according to the Team Isaiah Facebook Page.
Team Isaiah has posted a heart-rending video of the extreme pain and seizures that Isaiah is experiencing. There are different hospitals in other states that could help Isaiah, but his family says they are completely powerless to get him that help, because the state of Illinois retains custody of him and refuses to transfer him to one of those hospitals.
The young couple now had three children, all under the age of 1 year. Erica breastfed all three. Soon after, however, paramedics showed up when someone reported the birth.
According to Carey and Rengo, the paramedics suggested taking the newborns to the hospital for a check up, but they refused, worrying about the twins’ health with fragile immune systems among patients fighting disease.
The next day, CPS showed up for the first of several visits. They say CPS pushed them to switch to steroid creams, which the couple refused as well.
“It’s a very harsh treatment and can have very negative side effects. It can cause damage to bones, the muscular system and liver,” Carey said.
“They wanted the authority in my household. I told them, ‘I’m a Christian and God gave me the authority in my household,” Rengo said.
Soon after, CPS took all 3 children.
The fact that Medical Kidnappings have become so common is now reaching the mainstream media, who are beginning to investigate stories in their local communities. This report comes to us from WMTW 8 in Maine.
In this report, reporter Katie Thompson interviews the parents of 2-month old Ryder Ross, who was taken away from his family when they brought him into the emergency room because his leg was swollen. X-rays allegedly revealed multiple fractures in various stages of healing throughout Ryder’s body.
Doctors reported them to Child Protection Services (DHHS in Maine) for child abuse, and they lost custody.
However, blood work showed vitamin D and calcium deficiencies in the baby, and a doctor at Boston Medical Center diagnosed the baby with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which doctors say is not all that rare.
“Somewhere around one in five-thousand individuals probably have this disorder and its significantly under diagnosed,” said Dr. Jeff Milunsky, with the Center for Human Genetics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The couple is still fighting to get their child back, however, as the father has been charged with criminal charges of child abuse.
One of the stories we broke recently was the story of Tonya Brown, and her adopted son who has leukemia. She lost custody due to a disagreement regarding cancer treatment. Because she has decided to speak out in spite of allegedly being warned by the judge in her case not to, Fields Moselely of Phoneix 3TV was able to interview her, and has also now covered this story in the local media in Phoenix. You can watch the interview here.
Fields also interviewed Charles Flanagan, who oversees the new department created earlier this year (2014) by Governor Jan Brewer to replace CPS in Arizona. He basically admits that a parent only has a “right to choose” when that choice does not conflict with a medical authority.
Yet, as we have reported frequently on Health Impact News, the medical system is the biggest defrauder of the U.S. Government, and the largest criminal cases in U.S. history have been settlements over criminal charges against pharmaceutical companies. The medical system also causes more deaths per year than any single disease through hospital errors and side effects of prescription drugs. Should they have unquestioned authority to overrule a parent on medical decisions?
All three of their babies have been taken away from them and placed in the care of strangers. Levi was 10 months old when his mother, local singer and songwriter Erica May Rengo, gave birth to his twin brother and sister, at their home in Bellingham, Washington.
“Our birth was glorious,” she said, and the twins were reportedly healthy, full-term babies, who had no problem quickly figuring out how to breastfeed. The little family was overjoyed, until CPS stepped in to “help.”
It is another medical kidnapping according to the parents. The Rengos have chosen a wholesome, holistic lifestyle, based in their Christian faith, but CPS has allegedly stepped in to override the parents’ decisions. Now Erica and Cleave are living what they call a nightmare, separated from their children for reasons that don’t make any sense at all to them.
When Janet Napolitano became Governor of the State of Arizona she created a new philosophy for Arizona’s Child Protective Services agency. She stated, “Err on the side of protecting the children and we’ll sort it out later”.
This philosophy sounds wonderful for children, but after closer scrutiny it is a terribly flawed technique that devastates Arizona’s families and our children.
This philosophy mirrors the, “acceptable losses” philosophy and the “collateral damage” philosophy of child protection services. In other words, in Arizona it is acceptable to take a child from their family with less than the legal standards and protocols and allow the courts to settle any discrepancies later on.
“For Our Kids” – Deborah Maddison, and Tracy Baxter, Canadian activists from British Columbia, will lead the this evening’s discussion about the Rights of Children and Families in North America.
A growing number of parents have lost their children after being falsely accused of child abuse and even imprisoned for crimes they didn’t commit. Many of these cases only occur after parents mention that their child first became ill after they received a routine vaccination, or if they request a second opinion about a diagnosis or a prescription for their child. Many of them have had the support of other leading experts proving their innocence.
Tonight’s show will include Connie Reguli from Tennesee, an attorney and founder of the group Innocent Families Against Family Law Corruption. We’ll also hear from Terri LaPointe from Alabama, a journalist from Health Impact News. Then Kristi Devine will visit, a representative for the Diegel family from Arizona, whose 2 children are currently being held against their will. Another guest will be Tim Donnelly, California State Assemblyman. Finally, Maryanne Godboldo from Detroit will join us, a mother who withstood a 10-hour confrontation with police and SWAT for refusing to give her daughter a harmful drug. Many children are stolen by the State as a result of “medical kidnapping.”
ANH-Intl has been campaigning for freedom of choice in healthcare for over 12 years now. It’s one of our most fundamental campaigns.
In this article, we start to prise the lid off a fairly taboo subject area. We’ve brought you news in the past of individual cases where parental rights are being totally eroded, but there appears to be a rising trend in further incidences. Particularly in the US, parental rights are being removed by conventional healthcare authorities in order to ensure sick children receive a particular medical treatment, when that treatment has been opposed by the child’s parents. We asked two US organisations — the Parental Rights Foundation (PRF) and Medical Kidnap (MK) who do important work for families in distress to comment further.
Jessica Gilmore says, “I just want to love my grandson. That’s all I want.” However, if Connecticut DCF (their child protective services) has their way, little 17-month-old Jaxon Gilmore, who may not have much longer to live, will be adopted out to strangers, all because a grandmother allegedly questioned authority, seeking the best possible care for her sick grandchild. Here is the family’s story as reported to Health Impact News.
In a huge victory for parental rights and health freedom, a Canadian court recently ruled that the family of a 11-year-old girl with cancer cannot be forced to treat her with chemotherapy.
ABC 15 Arizona interviewed a former CPS caseworker turned whistleblower regarding some of the alleged abuses in the Arizona foster care system. The caseworker reportedly quit her job after seeing the abuse of power within CPS last year.
Keeping her identity hidden, the former caseworker claims that many of her colleagues forged reports and were not truly investigating the welfare of children taken into state custody. She claims there was one instance in which a child died while in state custody, and the caseworker knew nothing about it.
ABC 15 did an excellent investigative report showing court documents in which judges admitted that children were removed from their parents’ home simply because the caseworker “got ticked off” at the parents. The Arizona CPS whistleblower states in the interview that these are not isolated cases, but happen frequently.
Maria Hoffman carries the title “Director of the Arizona Legislative Office of Family Advocacy.” Her job description is stated to be: “Under contract to the President of the Arizona Senate and the Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, and working for all ninety members of the legislature, Ms. Hoffman is the only person at the legislature who handles CPS constituent issues directly and with the Attorney General’s Office.”
So any parent who has a question about why CPS took away their child cannot even ask their elected representatives in the Arizona State Legislature anything about their child, as all such inquires are handled only by Maria Hoffman, who is an employee and not an elected official.
When people ask questions about her role or about their children in state custody, she replies by threatening them with jail time or fines, including state legislators according to one source.
This is a “Family Advocate”? How can one woman have so much power to keep families apart as a paid employee of the government and not an elected official? Who is she really protecting? Health Impact News has discovered some shocking information about Maria Hoffman.
A tragic story was back in the news this week in Texas. The foster parent of Alex Hill was sentenced to life in prison for the death of the young child who was taken away from her parents’ home.
Alex Hill was reported to have been taken away from her biological parents because her father admitted to using marijuana at night after the child was in bed. With no evidence of abuse, CPS took custody of the child and placed her into a foster home with Sherill Small. Sherill Small reportedly admitted to police that she had slammed the child onto the floor, saying it was an accident.
It was also discovered that Sherill Small’s husband, who lived in the home while the child was there, was himself a recovering crack cocaine addict and admitted to multiple drug charges.
So here we appear to have another case where social services removed a child from a loving home with no sign of abuse, and then put the child into an abusive foster home, with the child tragically being murdered.
Lisa Meltzer is an Arizona mom of a special needs little boy. She and her family received special training to care for this precious little baby.
But one day Lisa was so sick, she felt she needed more help than her family could supply for her son for a short time, while she recovered from her sickness. She called the Arizona State social services to request help.
But according to Lisa, instead of helping, they removed the child from her custody and are now offering him up for adoption to foster parents. Even though she has not been charged with abuse, the state apparently believes they can remove the child simply based on his complicated medical needs. Her parental rights have allegedly been violated, as she has not been able to visit her 2 year old son for 4 months, and the Arizona Attorney General and Family Court Judge allegedly removed her from court when she tried to speak up for her parental rights.
What is going on in Arizona?
The parents did nothing wrong, yet their lives were turned upside down. They were falsely accused of abuse when they took their baby girl to the doctor for an accidental injury. Later, they were compared to “dolphins caught in a net.” A child abuse doctor at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital (HDVCH) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, actually thanked them for “taking a hard hit for the greater good” of catching abused and neglected children. They were innocent.
KPHO CBS5 in Arizona reported that there are so many children being removed from homes and put into foster care in Arizona, that there is a severe shortage of foster homes, and that babies and children are being “housed” in social services’ office buildings.
Phoenix Children’s Hospital and DCS seized custody of Christopher Reign Brown on June 25, 2013, taking custody away from his legal mother, Tonya Brown. Tonya and family members claim this was a “medical kidnap” simply because they disagreed with doctors and wanted to seek other options for his dangerous cancer treatment, a bone marrow transplant with no family member donor. Full Story here.
Tonya has a court hearing in Family Court on Friday November 11th. This court hearing could sever her relationship to her son permanently.
Advocates for the family have organized a rally for the family at the Court House.
Tonya Brown is “just a mom who is in love with her kid,” adorable 8-year-old Christopher Reign. Because Tonya questioned a very risky, painful procedure for her son, Tonya reports that his doctor at Phoenix Children’s Hospital enlisted Child Protective Services to take him away from her custody.
If the doctor has her way, Tonya could lose her beloved child forever in the upcoming hearings to permanently sever her parental rights later this month – all because a mother wanted to try less invasive options for her son before going to a treatment that carries sizable risks.
Kim Baldonado of NBC news in Los Angeles reported this week that several foster care kids have come out into the open to testify about abuses allegedly committed in California’s foster care program. In a press conference, former foster care children who are now young adults testified to horrendous abuses including: being tortured by “specially-made tools,” and being “abused verbally, physically and sexually.”
A Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy diagnosis lacks scientific validity. The Munchausen syndrome by proxy profile used by doctors contains paradoxes that make it very difficult, almost impossible, for mothers to prove their innocence. For example, being an over-protective parent is part of the Munchausen syndrome by proxy profile, but so is being a negligent parent.
Read how one family lost custody of their vaccine-damaged daughter to a Munchausen syndrome by proxy diagnosis in a medical kidnapping case. It took months to regain custody of the girl, but it was too late. The child died a short time later.
National radio host Dr. Gary Null recently contacted Health Impact News editor Brian Shilhavy to put together a show about Health Impact News’ new website, MedicalKidnap.com. Two mothers who have had their child removed from their custody were interviewed, along with an attorney and a psychiatrist, giving national exposure to the epidemic of medical kidnapping.
We have previously documented how one incentive for hospitals and social workers to medically kidnap children is because they can bill all drugs and medical care to medicaid, with virtually no accountability for children who are wards of the state and in the foster care system.
Carlos Morales, a former CPS investigator now turned whistle-blower, states that foster kids are 3 times more likely to be put on psychotropic drugs than children left with their parents.
Now, a new report from the Bay Area News organization shows that 1 out of every 4 adolescents in California foster care system is being drugged, 3 times the rate for adolescents nationwide.
There are a growing number of parents who have been falsely accused of child abuse. Many of these cases only occur after parents mention that their child first became ill after they received a routine vaccination.
Over the years as a journalist exposing these issues, I have been asked to help dozens of families worldwide who have lost their children or are losing their children as a result of false accusations. I spend many hours sifting through paperwork and engaging with a small number of brave professionals who are willing to give up their time and experience to help in these difficult and complex cases.
Since we have been publishing the stories of parents who have had their children seized by medical authorities and social service agencies over medical disputes, twice now we have had family court judges tell us, via the parents, to take down our stories because the parents were supposedly violating their gag orders.
Well, there is just one problem with those gag orders and judges’ orders to remove parents’ stories from the media: they are unconstitutional according to some of the top legal authorities in the United States.
Denied a voice and presence in current court proceedings regarding a custody battle between his mother and Illinois CPS and Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, 17 year old Isaiah Rider has decided not to remain silent any longer, and recently told his story in an exclusive interview with Health Impact News reporter Terri LaPoint.
Reporter Anna Wiernicki of KAMC in Lubbock Texas interviewed the mother of 4 month old baby Kathyrn who was taken away from her parents when they wanted to seek a second opinion regarding her medical care.
We applaud Anna Wiernicki and KAMC ABC for giving the parents a voice in speaking out against medical child kidnapping. Show your support by visiting their website.
It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. You take your child to the hospital, disagree with the doctor’s diagnosis, and Child Protective Services moves in to seize your kid.
Or perhaps even worse, you give birth to an infant and don’t want him or her vaccinated, but the hospital overrules you – even getting police to kick you out of the building. Or the hospital takes the baby because it was born at home.
Sound far-fetched? It’s not, and in the past two years alone, there have been cases in California, Massachusetts, Illinois, Alabama, Virginia, Arizona and Texas of children seized by state social workers and hospital doctors simply because the parents wanted a second opinion, didn’t agree with the treatments, or shunned traditional medicine.
That’s the subject of this week’s edition of Off The Grid Radio, as we talk to attorney and parental rights advocate William Estrada, who is helping lead the charge to get a Parental Rights Amendment passed and added to the U.S. Constitution.
In a story of medical kidnap in Texas first reported by Health Impact News, CBS 7 in west Texas interviewed the mother of the 4 month old baby that a local hospital seized after the mother raised concerns about the care she was receiving.
We applaud Lauren Lanmon and CBS 7 for giving the parents a voice in speaking out against medical child kidnapping. Show your support by visiting their website and reading their report.
They need to know that these are the kinds of stories the media should be publishing to stand up for the rights of parents who are having their children seized by doctors and CPS simply for wanting to seek a second opinion on the care of their child. Seeing a lot of traffic to the story will help them know this is an important issue to be addressed.
It’s the nightmare that they just can’t wake up from. 17-year-old Isaiah Rider is still in foster care and cannot go home to his mom, all because his mother committed what has been called the “cardinal sin” – she dared challenge the doctors when her son was in pain and not getting better. For that crime, Michelle Rider and her son are being punished by CPS and the hospital that couldn’t find an answer for him.
Michelle trusted the doctors to help her son, who has neurofibromatosis, a rare condition which causes painful tumors on the nerves. However, when Isaiah was still suffering severe pain for weeks after the surgery that was supposed to fix things, she did what any good mother would do – she questioned them, and fought for her child. The term “Mama Bear” comes to mind – it’s what moms do. However, some of the doctors at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago reportedly bristled at the audacity of one who would dare challenge their authority, and they pushed back.
You have just had armed law enforcement officials show up at your home with CPS workers, demanding that you hand over your child. Terrified, you ask, why?? A doctor has issued a complaint of “medical abuse.” Then you remember that you chose to fire your doctor and choose a new one.
Not able to resist armed law enforcement, you have no choice but to watch them take your child away. You quickly call an attorney, who sets up a court appearance where you can appeal your case to a judge in family court. Unfortunately, the judge seems unwilling to listen to your reasoning, and does not return your child.
Seem like a nightmare? This is a nightmare happening to hundreds of families all across America. Why is this happening? Why do 99% of cases like this brought before a judge in family court never allow the child to return home? As one attorney states: “Can they really be right that much of the time?”
In this article we explain why family court judges almost never return children to their parents, with actual footage from a judge’s training video on a government website, showing how federal funding received for children who become wards of the state over-ride parental rights.
Children for sale.
When we report to the public these cases of medical kidnappings, one of the most natural questions people ask are: why? Why do medical professionals and child social service agency workers take children away from loving parents?
One of the main reasons this terrible practice goes on in virtually all 50 sates is because every child who is taken away from their parents by social service agencies like CPS (Child Protection Services), immediately becomes a ward of the state, and the state can bill Medicaid for ALL of that child’s medical costs.
It has become a multi-billion dollar industry.
A Missouri doctor recently told a little boy that, if she had it her way, he would never see his mommy and daddy again. This was after 8 year old Jaxon was seized from his parents’ custody based solely on a statement from this single doctor. His parents, Tiffany and Jason Adams, are desperately trying to bring him home after what appears to be his doctor’s retaliation because they “dared to seek a second opinion.”
The Adams insisted that they had a right to seek another opinion. The doctor in charge of the care of their son replied: “I want you to know big hospitals take kids away from families for this stuff.”
The Texas mother of a four-month old baby girl writes, “I just want her back home in my arms and love and kiss on her! To hold her and never let go!” But it has been a month now since little Kathryn Blalock was literally taken out of her mother’s arms by CPS and the UMC Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, Texas, in what appears to be another medical kidnapping.
Lorie, the mother of Kathryn, feels as though she is living a nightmare, amidst contradictory information and diagnoses from the doctors. Despite doing everything she could to follow all of the doctors’ instructions, her baby was abruptly removed from her custody and is now in medical foster care away from the family who loves her.
Carlos Morales, a former CPS investigator turned whistle-blower, has just released a new book: Legally Kidnapped: the Case Against Child Protective Services.
Adams is one of a growing number of North Texans, and others nationwide, accused of child abuse when the only evidence is unexplained fractures. In the last two years, News 8 has profiled North Texans Andrew Huber; Rana and Chad Tyson; Darlyn Harrell; and Adam Bonham. The Hubers and Tysons were eventually cleared. “I’ve reviewed 120-130 cases of these unexplained fractures in children and know, that is my opinion, that these families did not hurt their children,” said Dr. Charles Hyman, “And there are medical explanations.” Hyman has been a pediatrician for more than 40 years. He now speaks out and testifies on behalf of parents who he considers to be wrongly accused of abuse.
Earlier this month we reported the sad story of the Diegel family, who had their two daughters seized by Phoenix Children’s Hospital for disagreeing with the doctors over their treatment. We have previously reported many similar stories of hospitals using Child Protection Services (CPS) to remove children from loving parents simply for disagreeing with doctors, such as Justina Pelletier at Boston Children’s Hosptial, and Isaiah Rider at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.
Since publishing the Diegel family story, Health Impact News has been approached by many families with similar experiences with CPS in Phoenix, and with Phoenix Children’s Hospital. These parents are terrified of coming forward and telling their story. What we have learned in our investigation is truly troubling, and needs to be exposed by the media.
Michigan, the only U.S. state that has a pharmaceutical “immunity law” seems determined to prosecute Maryanne Godboldo for refusing to administer a dangerous antipsychotic drug to her daughter.
When will the deliberate persecution of Detroit mother, Maryanne Godboldo, come to an end? Despite four court rulings exonerating Godboldo of any wrongdoing, the state prosecutor is, inexplicably, committed to what can only be described as a relentless attack. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), the nation’s leading mental health watchdog, has launched an in-depth investigation into Michigan’s mental health policies to get to the bottom of the state’s seemingly endless prosecution of Godboldo.
Health Impact News has just learned that one of the Diegel girls who were seized by Phoenix Children’s Hospital may be in critical condition due to a recent asthma attack. Hannah Diegel has chronic asthma, and is required to carry both a rescue inhaler and an epipen. However, now that she has been taken into State custody and separated from her mother by being put into foster care, there is evidence that this medical advice is NOT being followed. We received information today that Melissa Diegel received a phone call last night from her insurance company, informing her that Hannah’s asthma condition was not under control. The fear is that Hannah is now either in ICU or a hospital suffering from a potential life-threatening asthma attack. And she is completely separated from her family by court order, simply because her mother disagreed with the medical treatment she was receiving, and wanted to switch doctors.
In a medical kidnapping case in Arizona of two sisters that we reported on last Thursday, one of the girls, 12 year old Kayla Diegel, is reportedly in grave danger and in need of serious medical help she is not receiving from foster care.
A Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for the two girls reportedly resigned from the case over ethical concerns about how the girls were being treated in foster care. Kayla in particular was losing weight due to the fact that her feeding tube had been removed. She has a condition called “Gastroparesis,” which is a partially paralyzed stomach. She cannot take in enough nutrients by mouth, and needs the feeding tube. She has reportedly lost 25% of her body weight.
In a case bearing several similarities to Justina Pelletier’s family’s experience with Boston Children’s Hospital, and Isaiah Rider’s family’s experience with Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, 10 and 12 year old sisters have been seized by Phoenix Children’s Hospital over a medical dispute. The mother has reportedly been ordered to not discuss the case with anyone, and has been forced to take down YouTube videos and a Facebook Page with over 3000 followers that was documenting the actions of Child Protection Services and doctors at Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
Kayla and Hannah Diegel suffer from congenital disorder of glycosylation, (CDG, a form of mitochondrial disease.) Part of their condition is also suffering with “Gastroparesis,” which is a partially paralyzed stomach.
Local Fox News affiliate Fox4kc in Kansas City has reported that 17-year-old Isaiah Rider has returned home to Kansas City, even though the State of Illinois still retains his custody rights. Isaiah was released from Luries Children’s Hospital in Chicago where he was being held against his will, and the will of his family. He is reportedly staying with grandparents while his mother fights back against “medical abuse” charges for disagreeing with the hospital’s treatment and wanting to transfer him to a different hospital. Isaiah lost 5 months of his life to confinement in a hospital, and is now anxious to get back to school and resume his life.
Isaiah’s mother Michelle believes they held her son to conduct medical experimentation on his rare disease, Neurofibromatosis. Michelle will return to Chicago Friday to face trial. But in the meantime, at least Isaiah is back home in Kansas City, staying with his grandparents.
It has been 4 months since Cook County officials and Lurie Children’s Hospital seized custody of 16-year-old Isaiah Rider from his mother Michelle Rider because she disagreed with his treatment and wanted to transfer him to another hospital.
Isaiah suffers from a condition called neurofibromatosis, and his mother originally brought him to Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago because they had specialists on staff trained to treat this disease. But when Isaiah’s condition, which includes severe pain, was not getting any better, she decided to transfer him to a different hospital. As a result, Lurie Children’s Hospital stepped in and seized custody. Isaiah has recorded a video in support of his mother, who he is not allowed to see anymore.
In the report blow by Fox4kc, Michelle explains why she thinks they may be holding Isaiah: to do medical research. The top researchers in the world for neurofibromatosis are at Lurie Children’s Hospital, and the specialists there have previously told her that Isaiah’s case is “very rare.”
The Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) helps defend parents who chose to educate their children at home from medical tyranny and abuse. They are a non-profit organization that depends on contributions and membership fees to provide free legal representation. They have successfully litigated cases on parental rights all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
HSLDA recently announced they had taken on a case in Virginia where social workers removed two children from the home where they lived with their parents over a fake psychological diagnosis.
The right to legal counsel, your Miranda rights, and the right to a speedy jury trial are American rights protected by our Constitution. But not in family court, where a single judge can decide whether or not you are a fit parent. Child Protection Services (CPS) has more power today than the police, sheriff, or FBI, as they can come into your home and remove your child without a search warrant or court order.
Someone who doesn’t like you, for any reason, can make a phone call and provide an anonymous “tip” with the result of you losing your children. Doctors you disagree with can call CPS and have your child removed from your home with no search warrant or court order, by simply reporting you to CPS. This is in fact happening all across America to thousands of families. It is time to put a stop to this.
Despite prosecutors’ second attempt this year to bring criminal charges against Detroit mother Maryanne Godboldo, who underwent a 10 hour stand off with police for refusing to administer a powerful antipsychotric drug to her daughter, Wayne County District Judge Gregory Bill has become the second judge this year to dismiss the charges.
Michelle Rider and her 16-year-old son, Isaiah Rider, traveled from Kansas City to Lurie Children’s Hospital after doctors in her hometown, Texas, and Boston were unable to effectively treat his neurofibromatosis — a painful condition that causes tumors to grow on his nerves. When Isaiah’s pain was reportedly not getting any better at Lurie’s, his mother attempted to have him transferred to another hospital. But doctors at Lurie’s Hospital reported to Cook County Court that Michelle was guilty of “medical child abuse”, as they disagreed with the course of treatment chosen by the mother. As a result, they seized custody of the child and put him into a foster home, allowing the mother to only be able to visit her son twice a week for one-hour supervised visits. Isaiah has spoken out with a recently published video on Facebook.
Now that the tragic abduction of Justina Pelletier by Boston Children’s Hospital has been resolved after a national outcry, a bipartisan group of Congressional representatives are introducing new legislation to prevent the kind of medical abuses that led to Justina’s forced confinement for more than 16 months. Justina’s situation is not unique, but representative of a larger problem with Child Protection Services and hospitals all across the U.S. that use the foster care system to legally abduct children for medical research. Justina’s case received national media attention from talk show hosts such as Dr. Phil, Glenn Beck, Mike Huckabee and many others, due to her parents refusal to obey a court gag order on her case.
Others in the past have attempted to expose this corrupt system, such as Congresswoman Nancy Schaefer from Georgia. Congresswoman Schaefer lost her Senate seat in Georgia as a result of her speaking out, but states it was something “worth losing” for standing up for the rights of parents who were having their children kidnapped by CPS. She and her husband were found murdered in their home in 2010.
As people around the country celebrate the homecoming of Justina Pelletier, who was held against her will and the desire of her parents for 16 months over a disagreement on medical treatment, a case in Chicago reminds us that her situation is representative of a larger movement across the country to take children away from parents for the purpose of “medical treatment”.
NBC News in Chicago is reporting that Michelle Rider and her 16-year-old son, Isaiah Rider, traveled from Kansas City to Lurie Children’s Hospital after doctors in her hometown, Texas, and Boston were unable to effectively treat his neurofibromatosis — a painful condition that causes tumors to grow on his nerves. When Isaiah’s pain was reportedly not getting any better at Lurie’s, his mother attempted to have him transferred to another hospital.
But doctors at Lurie’s Hospital reported to Cook County Court that Michelle was guilty of “medical child abuse”, as they disagreed with the course of treatment chosen by the mother. As a result, they seized custody of the child and put him into a foster home, allowing the mother to only be able to visit her son twice a week for one-hour supervised visits.
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