The State of Illinois Seizes Sick Child and Blocks Hospital Transfer
In today’s America the severing of sick children from their parents by the state has become so common it has a nickname “the Parentectomy.”
You may recall the highly publicized ordeal of the Pelletier family. Justina’s parents, Lou and Linda Pelletier, gained national attention and garnered public support when their very sick 14-year-old daughter, Justina, was taken by the state. Her parents were charged with “medical child abuse.” In other words, they disagreed with the diagnosis of a new doctor and wanted her transferred to another hospital.
It’s easy to dismiss the Pelletier case with “there must be more to the story.” Be careful with that thought. It is a defense mechanism that can lead to a false sense of security.
Michelle Rider explains it this way. “We are taught that hospitals are safe, that doctors are safe, and DCFS intervenes when intervention is needed. So when we accept the fact that this is really happening, we are accepting that we are not safe and our children are not safe.”
Sadly, these are the words of experience every parent needs to hear because it’s happening in Illinois. Michelle Rider, a 34 year-old single mother was charged with medical abuse for seeking a transfer to another hospital for her critically ill son.
Isaiah was born with the genetic condition neurofibromatosis type 1 also known as NF1, a condition that produces pain and tumors on his nerves, in his abdomen and on his spine. Isaiah has spent most of his life in and out of hospitals undergoing and recovering from surgeries. As a young teen he endured an amputation, with the hope the suffering would end.
Michelle, a registered nurse by profession, sought out a specialist to remove the tumors and found Dr. McKay McKinnon. Together they decided to travel from their home state of Missouri to Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago for the surgery.
During the surgery another medical issue returned. Isaiah’s leg, one that had been amputated the year before, began to convulse. In the past this had produced excruciating pain that lasted for weeks. The first time it happened he was transferred to Boston Children’s Hospital where they did manage to stop the pain, but failed to produce a diagnosis. This time around, a week into his stay at the Chicago hospital, he was admitted into ICU for pain management of the convulsive stump.
After two weeks of watching her son suffer, it was clear to Michelle that Isaiah’s doctors had no idea how to make the pain or the shaking stop. Nor did they understand what was causing it. Michelle requested a transfer to the only hospital that had any success relieving his pain. She wanted to take him back to Boston Children’s Hospital.
As Michelle readied herself to leave the Ronald McDonald House, where she was staying at night, Isaiah begged his mom by phone to hurry. Before she could board the transport shuttle to the hospital another call came. It was a social worker eager to know when she would arrive.
This same anxious agent of the state met Michelle at the hospital entrance. She was chipper and pleasant, making polite small talk and inquiring about Michelle’s night’s sleep. “I have someone that wants to meet with you,” she told Michelle. The social worker then went on to explain that the woman waiting to meet her was Dr. Zena Leah Harris, the director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).
Instead of going to Isaiah’s room as Michelle expected, this new doctor led her back into another area of the hospital. Not knowing what was going on, Dr. Harris and two social workers ushered Michelle into a small room with few chairs. Pushing pleasantries aside the doctor announced, “We’re taking your son for 48 hours.” Then Dr. Harris informed Michelle, “I will be making medical decisions for your son going forward.”
“I will never forget those words,” Michelle said. “They had the shuttle that had brought me, waiting for me to take me back to the Ronald McDonald House. They took my hospital band off of me and then they waited until I stopped crying before they took me back out into the lobby.”
The hospital had her evicted from the Ronald McDonald House. At that point, all communication with Boston Children’s Hospital ended. She was completely severed from her child’s care, and Isaiah from her protection, when he needed and wanted her the most. The state of Illinois, with the blessing of the hospital that was supposed to help them, isolated Isaiah from his family and left him to suffer alone in a strange city.
After 30 days in ICU at Lurie Children’s Hospital, they sent him to Maryville Children’s Hospital. It only took 48 hours before Maryville requested to send him back to Lurie. But Lurie refused and suggested he be sent to a shelter.
Not willing to discard the boy and not able to return him to his family to recover, Maryville held him for two weeks until DCFS sent into a foster home in the south side of Chicago. There, Isaiah has told his mother he was attacked, exposed to prostitution and held at gunpoint. The details of that traumatizing ordeal are just beginning to surface.
Although Isaiah is now in the custody of his grandparents, he remains in the clutches of the state of Illinois and is once again in a medical crisis with critical level pain. The involuntary violent shaking has returned.
Inside sources say that Cincinnati Children’s Hospital is willing and capable of helping Isaiah’s rare condition, however the state of Illinois is blocking the transfer to Cincinnati.
Instead, the state extradited him from his home state of Missouri against his will and that of his family and sent him back to Chicago, to the very hospital that took him from his mother, failed to help him, and cast him aside.
Today, a judge will decide whether he will be allowed to return home or be sentenced to suffer the ongoing medical neglect and abuse at the hands of DCFS.
“Isaiah is currently being held and isolated with an electronic bracelet while his mother is concerned that he’s being needlessly drugged in this incredible human rights violation,” explained Attorney Randy Kretchmar.
“The State’s case is complicated by a lack of any evidence whatsoever and that Michelle actually did anything to cause Isaiah’s medical condition, which all parties acknowledge to be a real, chronic genetic disorder.”
A protest was scheduled outside of Cook County Juvenile Court at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, December 15th, against the Illinois DCFS and Lurie Children’s Hospital while Michelle Rider stands before Judge Nicholas Geanopoulos for today’s hearing.
“The actions by Lurie Hospital and Illinois DCFS are destroying this young man. This case is not unique. It is happening to thousands of families across this country. The willingness to destroy families to achieve a private agenda is unacceptable. Worse yet, it goes against the grain of the work they are mandated to do,” said Hanna Roth, Founder of The Rainbird Foundation, a global organization committed to the end of child abuse.
Take ACTION: Please pray for Michelle Rider, Judge Geanopoulos and all involved in this disturbing case.
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