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’
You people talk about the government and CPS like they are some kind of aliens. They are people like me who went to college, wanted to help people, and got a job like this to “change the world.” They could be your daughter, your nephew, your wife, or anyone that wants to work with children and took the step to do something positive in the lives of abused and neglected children. You want to think it’s always black and white and there is never a fuzzy line on whether a kid is in danger, but it’s simply not so. The job is chock full of hard decisions and that’s why there are so many other people and agencies involved in every case of a child removed from their parents. I don’t think ANYONE goes to work for CPS with bad intentions or for the lousy paycheck. These are people just like anyone else, often people with children of their own, who just want to make a difference. Stress, burn-out, and desensitization happen and that is probably why the average length of employment for CPS is two years. It’s a hard, traumatizing job. Again, you want change in the system? CPS jobs are begging to be filled and overworked workers wait for the relief of all you heroes who also wish to make the world a better place.
This is NOT about right or wrong. This is about CONTROL!!
I worked there. These cases do not happen frequently, period. I personally investigated probably around 300 cases per year. If places are understaffed, it can be as high as 600 per year for one worker. In all that time, I only removed children from two families, for drugs and physical abuse, which is usually why kids are removed. Despite what you might think you know based on biased internet hype, this is rare. CPS hardly receives medical neglect reports at all, much less ones like this where a child is claimed to be in danger of losing their life, so for a doctor to say that would be really concerning. In addition to the hundreds of cases I investigated myself, we always staffed everyone’s cases together as a unit making important decisions together. Additionally, we had monthly meetings with community members such as juvenile services, teachers, psychiatrists, law enforcement, etc, to staff cases with them on the direction of a case. In a case where something is deemed serious enough to need a child removed, it has to go in front of a judge, is assigned a child advocate (CASA), and a guardian ad litem (attorney for child), all of whom do their own investigation and make recommendations to the court on the best interest of the child, and ultimately a judge decides based on evidence what should happen, not CPS. An investigation is always done or else CPS would have nothing in their affidavit to the court about why the child was removed and that would be completely ridiculous. Even if you have one doctor saying nothing is wrong, the fact that another hospital believes the child’s life is in danger is extremely compelling and cannot be ignored. Hopefully, if that turns out to be a lie, people will direct their anger accordingly, but until then, CPS is responsible for making sure that the kid is definitely in no danger of serious medical problems. I’m not saying I would have taken the same insensitive approach in their actual removal, but as an experienced person in the field, I cannot say for sure what I would do because I don’t know everything they know about the case or why they did what they did. I’m not even saying that I think CPS isn’t way off sometimes, because they are. But if they are, so is the judge, the CASA, the guardian ad litem, and all of the other people who helped make the decision. But I guess you would have to have children’s lives in your hands day after day and make life and death decisions regularly to truly understand or intelligently speculate on what is going on every time you hear something like this. Sometimes they’re wrong, but usually if they are, the judge throws it out because they have not sufficiently proven harm or serious risk of harm to validate their removal. I don’t know why I’m even trying to explain this to deaf ears. I guess I just hope people will see how difficult that decision actually is when you are faced with a lot of conflicting evidence, some from a very credible source (an ICU medical team), and have to make a decision that could mean life or death to a child. Nobody likes removing someone’s kid. It’s not fun, it’s a TON of work, it’s very expensive for the state, and any educated CPS worker knows that kids are better off with their families whenever possible. If you think it is such a problem, anyone with a Bachelor’s degree is welcome to apply for the job. There are ALWAYS openings.
Then you must have lived in a city/county/state where things are done right. That’s not the case here in California, IMHO.
Danielle, with all due respect, this same hospital threatened to call CPS on me because I wanted to keep my son on my expressed breastmilk only and not add formula to his breastmilk. They told me I would starve him to death if I didn’t give him formula, but first they told me it was “my choice” and when I told them my choice was not to give him formula they started threatening me. They also neglected to give me “informed consent” that adding formula to breastmilk to increase calories can cause kidney failure, something he wasn’t at risk for without it. They also wouldn’t acknowledge my concern for his breathing difficulties. But because the hospital had discharged him and technically had no say they didn’t call, they did try to push his primary into calling and filing a report for me refusing the formula. They told my primary that I was starving my child and he was failure to thrive which immediately prompted a phone call to me and i had to take my child into the doctors office within 45 minutes of the call, however, his primary did week-to-week weight checks and told them they were nuts. I had similar problems with the nursing staff and specialists while my son was in the NICU there, but when I saw a problem I went to the charge nurse and had people blacklisted from his care, one choked him, turned him blue, and caused him to aspirate during feedings. If anyone was causing severe medical neglect to my child it was Sutter! So, I personally, have no doubt that this was a falsified report to CPS and that Sutter and the entire staff of doctors, nurses, and specialists need to be monitored!
Danielle: In light of your comments, I wish I could say that we are fortunate to have people like you making decisions on behalf of children. However, I would like to address several serious inaccuracies. Obviously, your decisions are based on the medical and social history you receive from the court appointed child advocates, teachers, psychiatrists and other community members. Unfortunately as a result of their reckless disregard for the truth children are taken from their loving parents and homes without any legitimate or legal justification and does happen more than you realize. Child advocates and court appointed child psychologist and attorney’s are notorious for committing perjury and lying under oath and perhaps you should spend your time investigating them instead of praising them. Obviously, you cannot imagine what it feels like to lose a child especially when if you are innocent and have accused of heinous crimes because of someone else’s vindictiveness. Please do not underestimate the lengths people will resort to keep control of a child and should consider being a part of the solution instead of the problem. As stated, there is a lot of conflicting evidence and in most cases no evidence at all. It is not fun to lose a child based on a corrupt and dishonest medical team and cannot be trusted to make life or death decisions.The child advocates, Barry Kassel and Jaime Jano from the Support Center for Child Advocates in Philadelphia were appointed to this case at an illegal hearing that I was forced to attend without an attorney present. Judge Lisette Shirdan Harris implemented rulings, ordered mental health evaluations, drug/alcohol tests and a home investigation based on hearsay and as a result of my attorney’s abrupt abandonment I was unable to defend myself or present witnesses. I believe the State is compensated quite well for their corrupt services and the problem is anyone with a Bachelor’s degree can apply for a job that they are not trained for or qualified to do. The play therapist assigned to the case lied under oath that she was a licensed psychologist and had been practicing psychology since 1999. The Court, the child advocates, the counsel for Paternal Grandmother (who was just elected as a family court judge) covered up the truth concerning the play therapists licensure and credentials throughout the litigation of this case and the Superior Court told my husband and I that we should listen to her if we wanted to ever see our grandchild again knowing full well that she was being investigated by the Pennsylvania Department of State and the Pennsylvania Board of Psychology prior to this Appeal. In May of 2011 fined and disciplined by the State and the Psychology Board and was ordered to cease and desist from holding herself out to public as a psychologist without being properly licensed. The Court refused to acknowledge her crimes then let alone now and know that if the truth is uncovered they will all be held accountable for their actions. Do you still believe that the only thing they care about is a ‘child best interests”? Concerned and disgusted grandmom.
You Go Girl!
The courts are corrupt… Family Court “GIVES STANDING IN EQUITY TO THAT WHICH HAS NO STANDING IN LAW” <– Deadly when spoken in court ! Raising your child is a WELL ESTABLISHED FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT. But that right is only recognized in a court of law… and NOT recognized in a court of equity!! (contract / family court). The state has UNLAWFULLY moved a lawful matter from a Court of Law, to a court of equity, TO CIRCUMVENT CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTIONS !! TREASON !!
People keep asking if there is something they can do – yes there is. We can all unite and storm CPS but really that would be like a band-aid situation because CPS is doing these types of things all over this country. And the government is right there with them. What we can really do, that will be effective across the board for everyone on a long term basis, is to support the Parental Rights Amendment. Please go to http://www.parentalrights.org to find out what this is about and what you can do. America is not becoming like the former Soviet Union, we are becoming more and more like Nazi Germany every day. Another terribly heartbreaking situation is the Romeike family who fled Germany to escape persecution for homeschooling their children and yet our current administration is trying to SEND THEM BACK TO GERMANY where the German government will force the children to attend state schools or else take them away from their parents. These two situations are terribly tragic, terribly wrong, and will soon become the norm if we do not stand up and fight for our rights. We can do that at http://www.parentalrights.org!!
Did you see the stipulation that they are not allowed to second guess ANY decision the hospital makes?!
The current healthcare legislation is going to make this much more commonplace!!
Will someone please start a petition on Change.org to address this? I WILL sign it!
Fire the department, that’s what I say; they are always wrong!!!
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/04/30/calif-parents-whose-baby-boy-was-snatched-by-police-tell-their-unbelievable-story-they-still-want-to-control-our-life/
The behaviour, by authorities, in this case and many others is simply outrageous.
People of America, wake up and stand together. If your congressman is not looking after your rights, boot him out and elect someone who will stand up for individual rights. In fact, it looks to me like the whole government from Obama down needs to be replaced by good old fashioned people who really care about other people, the environment etc and not their bottum line or their road to power and glory.