Parents Refuse to Vaccinate, Newborn Seized in Hospital by Police

Parents Refuse to Vaccinate, Newborn Seized in Hospital by Police









I am not content to sit on the sidelines while the
government gradually usurps the very essence of parental rights. I hope
you share my determination. We need to stand with people like Scott and
Jodi Ferris (obviously no relation to someone named Farris). Here’s
their story:

Jodi went into labor a bit earlier than she had expected—and the baby
was coming rapidly. Given their location and other factors, the midwife
they had hoped would deliver the baby at their home encouraged them to
get in an ambulance and head to the hospital.

Their baby, whom I will call “Annie,” was born in the ambulance in the
parking lot of the Hershey Medical Center—a government hospital in
Pennsylvania. Hospital personnel arrived very quickly and took charge of
both baby and mom.

As
any mother would do, Jodi immediately began to ask the nurses and
attendants how her baby was doing. The hospital staff was utterly
unresponsive. When they started to give Jodi an injection, she asked
what it was and what it was for. They gave her vague answers like, “It’s
just to help.” Only after giving her the injection of oxytocin did they
tell her what it was and then asked, “You aren’t allergic to that are
you?”

Jodi persisted in asking about Annie. No one would tell her anything
other than “she’s in good hands and you’ll be able to see her soon.”


Eventually a doctor told her that Annie scored a 9 on a physical exam
applied to newborns known as the APGAR test. A score of 8 or higher is
considered healthy. (It is unclear when the score was given since she
was in the ambulance at birth.) But shortly after this a different
doctor told Jodi that Annie was “very sick” and would need to stay in
the hospital. This doctor’s comments were accompanied by an explanation
of his disdain for midwives saying, “Too many people think they know
what they’re doing.”

About an hour later, another hospital staffer finally brought Annie to
Jodi and said, “The baby is doing good. She will be able to go home in
no time.”

Legal Requirements?

However, several hours later yet another staffer told Scott and Jodi
that Annie would have to stay in the hospital for 48 to 72 hours for
observation. Even though they persisted in asking why Annie would need
to stay, his only answer was that “the law requires us to keep the baby
for 48 hours.” When they asked for a reference to this supposed law, he
answered, “you’ll have to get that from risk management.” (By the way,
there is no such law in Pennsylvania.)

The risk management staffer eventually told them that even though they
saw nothing wrong with the baby, they just like “to keep babies like
this” for 48–72 hours. The Ferrises were told that Annie would not be
released for this period since it was “unsafe for her to leave the
hospital.”

Eventually, a risk management staffer admitted that the risk that was
being managed was not the health of Annie but the risk that the hospital
might get sued if something went wrong after she was discharged.

Ultimately, risk management said that they would be satisfied with a
24-hour stay and that Jodi and Scott could remain with the baby
overnight.

You have been Accused

Late
in the afternoon, a government social worker named Angelica Lopez-Heagy
came into Jodi’s room announcing that she was there to conduct an
investigation. Jodi asked to know the allegations. The social worker
claimed that it would be against the law for her to show Jodi the
allegations.

Jodi replied that she would not be comfortable answering the questions
if she couldn’t know the allegations. Immediately the social worker
proclaimed, “Since you’re not going to cooperate, I’ll just go and call
the police and we can take custody of the baby.”

Fearing that the social worker would carry out her threat, Jodi replied that she was willing to cooperate.

The social worker soon intimated that the issue was Jodi’s refusal to
consent to medical treatment for the baby. Jodi replied that she had no
idea why anyone would say that. The social worker claimed that she had
refused to allow a Vitamin K shot for Annie. Jodi replied that no one
had asked her about such a shot. Moreover, she had overheard hospital
staffers saying that they had already given Annie such a shot.

Neither the social worker nor any hospital staffer ever gave Jodi or
Scott any example of any medically necessary treatment that they had
refused for Annie.

At this point, Scott left the hospital to tend to their older children who were staying with friends.

Ordering Tests

Shortly after this, the hospital asked to check Annie’s white blood cell
count and to perform a strep test. Jodi agreed to the testing.

Then the hospital demanded that they give Annie shot for Hepatitis B.
Jodi said that she would agree only if they tested her or Annie to see
if either of them were positive. If so, then she was quite willing to
have the shot for Annie. The hospital claimed that they had forgotten
about this earlier when it was still possible to test that day, and that
they needed to give the shot anyway without any testing.

When the social worker pressed her to make an immediate decision about
this shot, Jodi asked her if they could simply wait until Scott got back
before they decided.

Put yourself in Jodi’s shoes at this moment. You gave birth that morning
in an ambulance. The hospital has made wild and conflicting claims
about your baby’s health all day long. You are exhausted. You are in
pain. Your husband has gone to check on your children. And a social
worker who has threatened to take your baby into police custody is
standing in your hospital room demanding that you make an immediate
decision.

Jodi simply said, “Please can’t this wait until my husband gets back.”

The social worker renewed her threat. If Jodi would not answer her
question right then, she would call the police. And then the social
worker started adding conditions. She and Scott would have to agree to
sign a safety plan before she could conclude her investigation.

Jodi said that she wanted her husband and an attorney to look at the
plan. She felt she was in no position to read such a document and really
understand what she was being pressured to sign.

Full Article Read Here


Source:-
http://www.activistpost.com/2012/03/parents-refuse-to-vaccinate-newborn.html