Medical Kidnapping in our CDKL5 Family
It took over a year and a half to obtain the Child Protective Services full investigation report. A report that declared no findings of neglect in our home. Thank you to the CPS case manager that pulled my husband aside verbally stating this case was clearly malicious. Thank you to our attorney and friend that dropped everything to meet us at the hospital in a matter of hours. Thank you to Harper’s home health nurses that helped us identify what was happening very early. Thank you to everyone who knew what we were dealing with and vouched for our character. This allowed us to mentally prepare ourselves for the steps necessary to move forward under very scary circumstances.
We kept quiet in hopes of privately making changes to the system. Others should not suffer as we have. After my letter to the hospital board of directors fell upon deaf ears I met with our State House of Representatives office. There should be a way to prevent people in positions of authority from abusing their power. There needs to be a way to prevent launching Child Protective Services investigations as a means of retaliation with no evidence. No one should be using CPS as a weapon rather than a tool to prevent actual abuse. Thankfully, a solution to amend legislation for mandatory reporting was suggested. However, because the legislature meets once every two years this cannot be rectified until 2019. My hope is that as we move forward Seth will know we fought for him just as we fought for his sister, Harper.
The following is a letter I sent to the hospital where Seth was born. His birthday is a joyful time of course, but it also remains a reminder of the treatment our family experienced shortly following his birth.
