The right of parents to determine the course of medical treatment for their children has suffered yet another slap in the face.
On April 29, 2013, a hearing took place regarding the Gestapo style abduction by Child Protective Services of 5 month old baby Sammy after his parents, Alex and Anna Nikolayev, took him out of Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento.
They left Sutter Memorial in order to seek a second opinion at Kaiser Permanente, a rival hospital, for Sammy’s flu-like symptoms.
Anna and Alex sought medical treatment at Kaiser because they were extremely concerned about the quality of care baby Sammy was receiving at Sutter Memorial.
When doctors at Sutter Memorial began discussing the possibility of heart surgery for the infant, the alarmed parents took the baby and left as the medical staff would not discharge Sammy so they could seek another opinion regarding the child’s heart murmur.
“If we got the one mistake after another, I don’t want to have my baby have surgery in the hospital where I don’t feel safe,” Anna said.
She added, ”We went from one hospital to another. We just wanted to be safe, that he is in good hands.”
While at the second hospital, medical staff determined Sammy was fine. The attending doctor at Kaiser said in a written statement, “I do not have concern for the safety of the child at home with his parents.”
Despite the all clear from the medical staff at Kaiser, CPS escorted by armed police showed up at the Nikolayev’s home the next day and took baby Sammy in outrageous and dramatic fashion.
Anna’s home video of the incident shows police entering the home.
“I’m going to grab your baby, and don’t resist, and don’t fight me ok?” a Sacramento police officer is heard saying in the video.
Prior to abducting the baby without so much as a warrant, Alex was slammed against a wall, pushed to the ground and his house keys forcibly removed from him after meeting with officers outside.
Worst of all, after taking the baby, CPS returned the child to the protective custody of the exact same hospital the parents had originally fled to seek a second medical opinion – Sutter Memorial – for wanting to perform unnecessary open heart surgery on the infant.
Court Hearing a Slap in the Face to Parent Rights
At a hearing on the matter, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Paul Seave determined that custody should be immediately returned to the parents.
The Nikolayevs can now see Sammy whenever they want. They also supposedly now have full control over the child’s medical decisions.
In reality, however, the Nikolayevs are still under the thumb of CPS and their rights as parents continue to be violated.
Rather than the child returning home where the parents would continue under the care of medical staff at Kaiser Permanente which was their original choice, baby Sammy was transferred by court order to yet a third hospital – Stanford Medical Center.
The judge also ruled that Anna and Alex must follow all medical advice from now on, including not taking their child from Stanford Medical Center without proper discharge.
Why are Anna and Alex being forced to follow the medical advice of Stanford Medical Center and not the medical staff at Kaiser Permanente who determined the child was safe at home for the time being?
Why is this child still in the hospital and not at home and under the supervision of the medical staff the parents originally chose?
Most alarming, Child Protective Services is still involved with this case even after its Gestapo style abduction of the child as captured on home video.
While Sammy will be returned to the custody of his parents upon discharge from Stanford Medical Center, CPS will continue to monitor the situation with regular home visits by a social worker.
Why is CPS being permitted by the court to monitor this child when the parents did nothing wrong?
Inexplicably, Alex and Anna are still vulnerable to future action by CPS for the “crime” of seeking the medical care for Sammy that they saw fit.
Welcome to Soviet Amerika comrades.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Sources: Judge Orders Transport of Baby Sammy to Stanford Medical Center
Baby Taken By CPS Returned, Parents Ordered To ‘Follow All Medical Advice’
OH MY GOODNESS!!! We must raise some hell for this family! To those of you who do not get involved in politics and don’t blow up the phones of your representatives, this is what happens!
Not in the us
I cannot believe this!
Holy crap… Do they not have a right to sue?
On the Blaze today they had an interview and the lawyers say they plan to file suit. I’m not usually big on suing but in this case I am ALL for it!
When you say, “I am not usually big on suing” you may want to question if that line of thinking was fed to us by those who’d have something to lose by lawsuits and exposure. Its kind of a popular and PC thing to believe people sue too much and I do understand the sentiment of that. Its the stories of frivolous law suits eating up resources and tax money. But IMO frivolous suits are more rare than norm. Litigation is no fun, arduous, expensive and soooo lengthy. Few would do it for kicks and giggles. We need to retain every right we have to sue. It is often the only recourse we have as citizens. (Just a friendly little side note, it’s good to question even our long-held and popular beliefs sometimes) 🙂
Great point Sahara!
Heather,
Ur very naive if u don’t think doctors could only be concerned about their own benefit. Nobody said they wanted to do surgery for kicks but its very likely they could only be concerned about their own interests, as most organizations are these days and have probably always been. The whole system is corrupt and revolves around money. If you don’t agree there can only be a few reasons. Either ur with them, ur very naive or uneducated.
I completely agree that CPS and the policy were totally out of line in their snatch of the baby.
Scary for sure.
However, you have missed some crucial details in reporting on this story-
1). The baby was born with a congenital heart murmur and has been closely monitored since birth due to that
2). The couple expects the baby to have heart surgery at Stanford and their beef doesn’t appear to be about that, just the strong arm tactics of CPS.
These details are easily found during a Google search of this incident. I know you are very biased when you report these kind of happenings- please provide the full details of what happens in these “articles” so we all see exactly what is going on instead of the version you prefer. Thanks.
The articles I read from Google search of the parents names were very sympathetic regarding the snatching of this poor little baby away from the parents, but at least provided full details so the whole thing is in context.
Heart murmurs are extremely common. The staff at Kaiser determined the child was fine and safe at home for the time being. The child should be under the care of Kaiser Permanente, not Stanford Medical Center.
The court chose the hospital, NOT the parents.
The parents have NO CHOICE on whether the surgery is NECESSARY or not! They HAVE to do what they are told. Very sad….. If it was chemotherapy and they didn’t want it for their baby, they would have to do as they are told…
Exactly! One hospital said it was not necessary. Is the child under the care of that medical staff? No!
Did Kaiser say it was not necessary, or that it was not – immediately necessary? This is the first time I read about Kaiser saying anything more than that the child was safe with his parents at home for the night. Is there more information somewhere on what Kaiser intended as followup care?
Sarah, please- you did not once report a thing regarding the heart murmur, leading all hit readers to believe that this baby was going to receive open heart surgery for absolutely no apparent reason. It’s bad enough without omitting key details.
My brother had a serious heart murmur as a child. While I appreciate your expert opinions, and realize you are not keen on traditional medicine, I don’t see any hospital eager to do open heart surgery on a 5 month old for kicks.
I agree completely that this situation went terribly and could hardly have been handled worse by the staff at Sutter.
Heather, please read the article!
a hospital is a business-and in the business of making money. they don’t care about their patients as people. all they care about is their bottom line.
and that’s not saying that there aren’t nurses/staff that don’t care-I’m sure some do… but they are not in charge! their bosses are.
In fact, nursed are forced to vaccinate or lose their jobs.
Heather,
Has it not occurred to you that the original doctors and hospital were going to operate because of the money both would receive in so doing? If not, you need to wake up or you may have a perfectly health kidney removed the next time you go to an emergency room.
They took the child in because of flu…not for heart surgery. Then the doctors want to do surgery. I would seek a second opinion as well, it’s the smart thing to do. The hospital refused to release so they could do that. Something’s fishy in the US of A.
This is what you’ve been voting for America…this is where we’re headed…and even further. Soon we may not have the freedom to express our outrage of these sorts of things online without being arrested. America is a strong country, it can ONLY be destroyed from within. Another Civil war coming? Why do they REALLY want to remove our right to bear arms? So sad.
We have not been voting for this! This trend has been happening for a LONG time now and continuing regardless of who is in office! As well as the trend toward total control and/or disarmament.
Heather, the point is that the parent’s choice was not respected. If they have now come to a different choice that is compliant with what the government wants, while that appears fine, it is not. Their choice should be supported regardless as long as it is not grossly negligent (which seeking a second opinion or following a second expert opinion is not!). Now, after all this, these good parents are still seen as perpetrators of crimes toward their own child and are having their privacy and rights revoked and invaded by a government agency who never had any business in the event in the first place all because of corporate greed, power and self righteous hospital representatives and the agencies aiding them to take an infraction of hospital policy way too far. They can’t just go home and go back to their former choices and way of life. They have to be observed and ask permission from here on out, constantly second guessing what CPS might think of their choices, and constantly looking over their shoulder. This isn’t what I picture when I think of living in “the land of the free”.
I have a heart murmur and I am 57 years old. Had it all my life and have had a very normal life. No medicines or any special treatment. I think it is absurd the way the government has taken control of the American family
Heather- she clearly mentioned the heart murmur- in fact it was only 5 sentences into the article (“…so they could seek another opinion regarding the child’s heart murmur”). Before you publicly scathe someone, you should be sure of your facts- and approach with a bit more grace and kindness versus a “I know you are very biased” as it just exposed your bias, not hers.
Your tax dollars at work. Go after the parents who love their child and seek the best medical treatment instead of unnecessary open heart surgery. Now those parents who beat and starve their children are just victims of vicious gossip and need their privacy to continue to abuse and kill helpless children.
I hope they sue the heck out of these bureaucratic jerks and win. Obviously those doctors at the first hospital were not only incompetent, but are blinded by their God complex to a parents rights to protect their child and get them proper medical treatment.
They remind me of the mayor of New Orleans during hurricane Katrina. I don’t know what to do myself, but I refuse to let anyone else tell me what to do and I’m going to blame everybody else for my anal retentive behavior.
If you also believe you have the right not to receive vaccines, home school your kids or anything else the so called experts deem improper, you are subject to arrest and having your kids taken away by strangers who are more interested in power plays than the welfare of a small baby. What a bunch of garbage are they dumping on the American people. This couple made a statement that they expected this kind of misconduct in Russia., but they thought America was the land of the free. Isn’t that sad?
Unfortunately no one except the rich can afford the kind of lawyer who would take them on.
Yes, and you can bet that they count on that!
This gross violation of parental rights will become the norm, in fact, it will be the law if we allow our Congressmen to ratify The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
If you find this case deplorable, then take action to support the Parental Rights Amendment which would establish constitutionally these parent’s rights to choose medical treatment for their child. Put your emotions to action while there is time.
Our food,water,protection,meds,seems to have an agenda?????
Sure they have an agenda, J.A. If any doubt look at this YouTube about toxic lightbulbs, the ones that have mercury in them and your house turns into a toxic dump site if you break one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=x0x3rbHFwQU
Do you know how we can get involved and where to find more info on the Parental Rights Amendment? I’m going to Google it, but thought I’d ask as well.
Kristie,
Go to http://www.parentalrights.org! This really may be our only hope!!
Kristie, go to parentalrights.org for more info
This is a red herring. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child will not make this the norm. Certain groups have been spreading these lies to gain support for their “parental rights amendment.” The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child says things like children should not be drafted for war, etc., and that they should not be abused (beaten, burned, injured, etc.) by their parents. Surely you don’t have a problem with that, do you?
Our kids can currently be drafted or beaten?
Don’t think so.
So why exactly do we need to adopt this?
Amy,
Respectfully, do your research before you parrot the party line, you may be surprised! Question everything your freedom are at stake!
Amy, Have you read the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child? I have. I read it when it was first being ratified throughout the world. It grants children the right not to adhere to their parents requirements in a number of areas. it also grants children the “right” to receive mail of any kind without parents opening that mail. As a parent and now, grandparent, I can tell you, my children NEVER had the right to not have me oversee their mail and their upbringing. This UN paper undermines the rights of parents. Read it carefully and you can easily see that
Better read the document again. It does place control of the children with gov’t first and parents later. On the other hand, the parental rights amendment is also a bad idea, as the gov’t would merely make certain that parents have NO rights beyond what the courts say the amendment forces them to recognize. Look at what they’ve done to many of the other amendments, particularly the 2nd.
We’ve been living n the USSA for a long time now.
This is awful and so upsetting. I’ve had similarly terrible experiences with crazy hospitals. It’s out of control.
I do not understand why many overt child abusers are not being looked at, but this precious family who have a mind and want to figure out what is best, is being treated so HORRIBLY! What kind of system is this? CPS should have a little common sense and decency and back off. God help and protect the innocent.
The police State Graduated on April 15, 2013 with cheers from the Majority.
Welcome to the new police state where slavery is freedom, debt is wealth, and disease treatment is healthcare.
What has happened here to Alex Anna and Sammy has happened to many other families…we just never hear about it.
It is easy to understand how this has happened.
First the police came after the Cannabis consumers, labeling them criminals and drug addicts, claiming to want to take care of our children from drugs, and now our children have access to more unregulated drugs than ever, and are being locked up in prisons for profit more than ever before.
Then the police came for the Raw Milk, fringe foodies, claiming their milk is dangerous and that farmers were criminals, lock em up take their stuff.
Then they came after the child abusers and CPS was given the power to take all of our children away from us to protect them from abusers.
The predators in the community are protected by the biggest mafia, government, and more and more families are going to be “Cyprised”, just like Alex, Anna and Sammy.
Individuals and then communities must resist the incremental infringement on liberty and freedom by the predators who no call themselves our protectors.
AMEN, this stuff has been going on longer than many people know! And this is only the beginning…
Yesterday, a Sacramento County judge ordered that Sammy be transferred to a hospital in Palo Alto (120 miles away), and that his parents finally be given unfettered access to their son… under the condition that the State of California’s Child Protective Services continue to monitor the ‘situation’.
Guns. Cops. Government bureaucrats. Courts. Kidnapping. A dysfunctional medical care system.
This is what it means to be in the Land of the Free… where collecting rainwater, consuming raw milk, or seeking a second opinion on your child’s medical care is now criminalized.
When you don’t even have the basic right to make decisions about your own child… and when your own child can be forced from you at gunpoint in your own home that was entered illegally… you know that freedom has officially hit the waste bin of history.
Perhaps the greatest irony is that the parents are originally from Russia… but they had to come to the United States to find the Soviet Union.
Have you hit your breaking point yet? If not now, when?
Yesterday, a Sacramento County judge ordered that Sammy be transferred to a hospital in Palo Alto (120 miles away), and that his parents finally be given unfettered access to their son… under the condition that the State of California’s Child Protective Services continue to monitor the ‘situation’.
Guns. Cops. Government bureaucrats. Courts. Kidnapping. A dysfunctional medical care system.
This is what it means to be in the Land of the Free… where collecting rainwater, consuming raw milk, or seeking a second opinion on your child’s medical care is now criminalized.
When you don’t even have the basic right to make decisions about your own child… and when your own child can be forced from you at gunpoint in your own home that was entered illegally… you know that freedom has officially hit the waste bin of history.
Perhaps the greatest irony is that the parents are originally from Russia… but they had to come to the United States to find the Soviet Union.
Have you hit your breaking point yet? If not now, when? Simon Black
That hospital would be Stanford Medical Center, which is at Stanford University, in Palo Alto.
What a lot of people don’t know is that the various CPS agencies around the country not only get their budgets based on how many kids are in the system, meaning they want control over as many kids as possible, they also get a $4K/kid bounty from the feds for every kid they take away from their parents and adopt out. I wasn’t sure if this was still going on, so I looked a bit yesterday, and, as far as I can tell, it’s still in place. So…these people have incentive to especially involve themselves with babies and cute little kids who would be easy to adopt out.
@Heather–no, they do not get a paltry $4k from the feds for “saving” an at risk child, they get the generous sum of $160k per child, and THAT is why they take them in the first place, for the money–it’s not in the best interest of the child at all. Make note here of just a tiny bit of math–for every 10 children “saved” by the county’s CPS, the Feds give that county $1.6m…that’s a MILLION SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS to line their coffers with. Sneaky way to further a social engineering agenda don’t you think, bribing local governments?
think your children are yours…wrong…
…http://realitybloger.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/killing-your-strawman-the-path-to-freedom/
http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/family/item/496-beware-un%E2%80%99s-convention-on-the-rights-of-the-child
http://famguardian.org/PublishedAuthors/Media/Antishyster/V08N1-CorpOwnershipOfChildren.pdf
I am NOT saying this is morally or ethically correct, just that this is how the courts of the ‘greatest country of the world’ in the ‘land of the free’ see the human resource that is a child which is a surety on the debt of the corporation of the USA that has been bankrupt since 1933. Thus, the child (and the parents) have been converted into a security (at birth) and are thus property of the state. You can thank Mandell House and ALL of your current and former politicians for this. Democrat and Republican.
“Marriage is a civil contract to which there are three parties — the husband, the wife and the state.” —Appellate Court of Illinois, NO. 5-97-0108
“The primary control and custody of infants is with the government.” —Tillman V. Roberts. 108 So. 62
“The court stands in the position of parens patria[e] of children.“ —Ayers v. Kelley, 284 Ala. 321, 224 So.2d 673 (1969)․
“”Parens patriae,” literally “parent of the country,” refers traditionally to role of state as sovereign and guardian of persons under legal disability.” —Ex parte Bayliss, 550 So.2d 986, 988 n. 1 (Ala.1989) (quoting Black’s Law Dictionary 1003 (5th ed.1979)).
“The state has a wide range of power for limiting parental freedom and authority in things affecting the child’s welfare… In fact, the entire familial relationship involves the State.” —Prince, 321 U.S. at 167, 64 S.Ct. at 442, 88 L.Ed. 645.
“In other words, the state is the father and mother of the child and the natural parents are not entitled to custody, except upon the state’s beneficent recognition that natural parents presumably will be the best of its citizens to delegate its custodial powers… ‘The law devolves the custody of infant children upon their parents, not so much upon the ground of natural right in the latter, as because the interests of the children, and the good of the public, will, as a general rule, be thereby promoted.’ ” —Chandler v. Whatley, 238 Ala. 206, 208, 189 So. 751, 753 (1939) (quoting Striplin v. Ware, 36 Ala. at 89) (‘ ’).