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’
Sandra
There is a group of lawyers that will take the cases free. They advertise on the facebook page that I believe is called Fight CPS.Q
Leah G
As someone who had to live in fear of CPS due to a vindictive person and false allegations I know how these parents feel. I now know that at any minute of any day they can come ad try to grab your children without a piece of evidence. You are never really in control. Please look into the Straw Man . You are a corporate entity via your Birth Certificate. Your child is owned by the Govt as the product of your business. There are several laws addressing this and the gist is that you are allowed to raise your child unless the State who legally owns the child determines you are not fit. Look into your marriage certificate as it is just a business certificate. All of this is so wrong. We are subject to a corporate takeover of our God given rights and so few even know this.
debbie new
<http://www.news10.net/news/article/243569/2/Baby-Sammys-case-prompts-legislator-to-call-for-audit-of-CPS
heart disease and
It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d certainly donate to this superb blog! I guess for now i’ll settle for book-marking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account.
I look forward to fresh updates and will share this blog with my
Facebook group. Talk soon!
Alex
Don’t we all realize that medical information and CPS information is required to be confidential? We are hearing only one side of the story, one self-promoting parents with an attorney and media coverage are hammering home to distract from their own mistakes. The summary I heard from someone connected to Sutter is that the child was born with severe congenital problems and that the parents have failed to care for it according to the medical advice they were instructed to follow. Let’s not believe charges again CPS and the government still they are proven.
Heather
Unless the person you heard from was actually caring for this baby, all they are going to know is what the hospital officially had to say about it–which would totally be CYA.
Oakynleaf
“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.”
Wasn’t it explained a couple of times in this slanted article that it was the Police who said they were there to grab the child? That CPS arrived escorted by Police? And yet you assert it was CPS engaging in Gestapo abductions?
Look, the press never gets this crap right and this article is just another biased hack job. I can tell you with confidence the other side of this picture. CPS received an allegation from the hospital, or a Nurse, or a technician (doctors rarely ever will take the time) and per the state laws and regulations they were required to respond. The CPS investigator, already burdened with too many damn cases, probably arrived and argued against emergency removal (which would just add another case to handle), but their administration ruled against them for fear of what the next days headlines would be if they didn’t recommend action and the baby died: “CPS Refused to Help Dying Baby!!!”. And during the Judge’ review the next day, the judge chose the safest action as well, by sending the baby to a third (opinion) hospital AND THEN ordered CPS to stay on the case and report back in 60 days. CPS does not establish a case like this without court order. So, let’s be sure to credit the Judge for a lot of these actions, OK? Now, for the parents……are they the innocents involved here? Well, in the beginning of the article, the impression is given that the baby just had the flu and then they wanted to operate on it’s heart. Why in the hell would they do something like that? Well, as we read on, we find the baby has a heart murmur. OMG!! When did it develop the murmur? Was it the medicine the nurse gave her who didn’t even know what the medicine was for? We don’t know. Bottom line, there are way too many facts missing in this case to make any judgement. We don’t have all the facts. The baby could have a murmur that was complicated by the flu symptoms. Respiratory stress of the flu symptoms could be making the babies’ heart struggle too much and could have been threatening it’s heart. Too much information missing!!! This article is extremely biased and insulting. It’s a flagrant trumping of missing facts to assuage a serious vengeance against CPS.
Heather
Bull. I very nearly had the same thing happen to me with my eldest. Born at 35 weeks due to a car accident, she had a 6-day stay in the NICU due to immature lungs. When I did get to take her home, I had to take her into the doctor the next day, which I did. But we had only moved to that part of the state about the same time I got pregnant, and all my prenatal care had been with a midwife–only the wreck had shunted us from midwife care to a hospital in another part of the state (where the wreck happened). So I didn’t actually know any of our local doctors, and the one I chose first happened to be an idiot. I took our daughter in for the appointment the day after we went home, and then another a few days later. Now, my daughter had not lost ANY weight, post-birth in the hospital, and was, in fact an ounce or two above birth weight at this second appointment, when she was 10 days old. The doctor screwed up his conversion from metric units to pounds and ounces and decided she wasn’t gaining properly. AND wanted me to nurse her for 10 minutes per side and then pump and measure how much more she took–which was nonsense and a “booby trap” and I was well aware of it. AND I was supposed to come in for daily weighing (I had a baby scale at home and told them that, but they wanted me to make unnecessary trips in anyway). Add that to nagging about vaccinations at every appointment, and I went home, called my midwife, and found out who in the area was a better pediatrician, and called up and made an appointment. The very next day, I had DFS on my doorstep, because Dr Idiot was “concerned about the baby’s weight”. I showed the DFS lady my obviously healthy, happy baby, and she went away and I got a “case closed” notice a few days later. I later learned from my customers that this doctor made a habit of reporting people who took their kids elsewhere to DFS, just out of sour grapes.
Heather
Also, the vast majority of heart murmurs NEVER require any surgery. Generally, the kids just outgrow them. They are NOT an “Oh, my G-d!” health problem in most cases–just one to keep an eye on.
savitri
really praying, breathing through the heart, sending so much love and light to this dear baby and family, and our whole country and planet and beyond….. we all need to be strong, find and cultivate and bring our peace and healing through and through ….. peace to all, light to all, love to all … ******
Cheryl
The courts have too much power. But they have been given it already…I see no way for it to ever go back to the way it used to be. They don’t care if they scar a child for life taking them away from the only family they ever knew. They just don’t care. They gave my ex- husband the right to take my child even if he was drinking and the 2nd time he took her, the police caught him drinking and driving but nothing ever happened to him, even though he was drunk driving for the 2nd time and had his 10 yr old in the car. He got caught drinking and driving a 3rd time and a 4th time and he continues on with only a slap by the court system. He’s violent yet the courts handed her over and punished me for trying to protect her.
Concerned Grandmom
Unfortunately, most people do not understand the difference between a “heart murmur” and an “hole in the heart”. When my granddaughter was six months old it was discovered that she had a heart murmur and was referred to a cardiologist from the same hospital she was born in. An ultra sound was administered and it was discovered that our grandchild had an 8/mm hole in heart and as a result was told she needed to monitored for the next few years. When she was two years old, the hole enlarged and was now an 11m/m hole. Since my husband and I were granted Primary and Legal Custody we were responsible for addressing and stabilizing her medical issues. Our granddaughter was 2lbs 13oz. at birth and had a failure to thrive, hiatal hernia, acid reflux and provided her with the best medical care and did whatever was necessary to address and stabilize her medical concerns. When we were told that she needed to have an operation to repair the hole we immediately contacted the her pediatrician and she referred us to St. Christopher’s Hospital in Phila and Children’s Hospital in Phila (CHOP). There were several procedures that were available and it was stated by both cardiologists that this procedure was necessary and needed to be done before she started Pre School. The pediatrician agreed and arrangements were made to proceed with this operation. Notwithstanding the above, the Paternal Grandmother disagreed with the opinions of the two cardiologists and the pediatrician and filed a frivolous petition that we were medically abusing our grandchild among other heinous claims. We retained an attorney who assured us the fabricated allegations of child abuse and neglect would be addressed immediately. However, she failed to do what was promised and the Paternal Grandmother embarked on a witch hunt to portray us as liars and child abusers. As a result of these unsubstantiated accusations the judge appointed a child advocate and a play therapist to make recommendations concerning our grandchild’s mental health treatment and medical issues, as well as ours. We were slandered, bullied and abused by the Court and the team of individuals that were assigned to the case without any legal justification. They tampered with witness, committed perjury, altered documents, transcripts and medical records. They accused us of sexual abuse and subjected our grandchild to unthinkable invasive tests and put her on a feeding tube without any consult to us. CHOP was refused payment for these procedures by the insurance company and stated these procedures were “medically unnecessary.” The Court threatened to put our grandchild in a foster care medical facility if we did not do what we stood in the way of transferring custody of our granddaughter to the Paternal Grandmother. We were granted a “good by” visit in the hospital where she was court ordered to remain and did not give any reason for doing so. We were told to leave the room when she cried and screamed for us to help her. We were monitored by guards and were not allow to be alone with her. We could not kiss her, hug her and she could not sit on our lap. We were in shock. We were forced to leave our sad little granddaughter in a state of confusion and despair and was assured she would be coming home soon. However, our efforts to regain custody of her were in vain and we did not see her until one year later. After a few “therapeutic supervised visits” we were prevented from seeing her again for another year. It is now going on five years since our last visit with her and even though the court orders specifically states that we “shall not be alienated” we have been deliberately kept from having any contact with her whatsoever. The fact remains, the state’s involvement in custody matters is out of control and has disrupted the lives of many innocent children and their families. The Philadelphia Family Court System has no one to answer to, and believe they are above the law. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is now becoming notorious for “kidnapping” innocent children from their families without any warning and without any legitimate or legal justification. My husband and I have been stigmatized by the allegations of child abuse and our lives have been a living hell. The corruption is running amuck in our city and is something that must be addressed, and remedied for our children’s and grand-children’s best interest and future well being. My heart goes out to many innocent parents who are subjected to this cruel and unusual punishment because they want the freedom to do what is best for their child. Also, attached is the website of a recently released film on YouTube that was published by Leonard Neil Friedman, my brother and our Granddaughter’s great-uncle. She is the love of his life and this film was made in her honor.
If you have any questions please contact me at [email protected]