I must be supervised with 3 week old son based off a false postitive drug test

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Nineteen

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Pennsylvania
My 3 week old son was hospitalized last week. He slept longer then normal and woke up and appeared lethargic so me and my girlfriend called 911. At first they thought it was a bacterial infection & then the next day they said he tested positive for opiates.

We were mindblown as to how this was possible. We were accused by doctors, physicians and children & youth services of child abuse & poisoning the baby. The doctors exact words to me were "someone in the house had to administer & give him opiates because he did not give them to himself".

We were told by children & youth that anyone who was present in the house when we called 911 was not allowed to be with the baby unless supervised by an approved 3rd party. We had to agree to this "safety plan" or we were told he would be by taken to foster care.

I am able to access my sons lab results through an online service the hospital has. As of december 27th ( the same day we were coerced to sign safety plan) there are results from an "extended toxicology lcms" test which the results are negative of all drugs. I googled "lcms" & these are done as a confirmatory test to rule out a false positive.

They falsely accused us of administering opiates to my son.. threatened foster care. came to the conclusion that everyone in this house (the mother, father, grandmother & 16 year old uncle) currently needs to be supervised while around child all based off a non confirmed false positive urine test. This seems like negligence on the medicial staff for making these reports without urine results being fully confirmed. I am unable to get ahold of anybody & ask questions as its the holiday but is this lawsuit material?
 
No. It is just a sad inconvenience.

Even criminals who are arrested and jailed for narcotic crimes don't see their true results until lab work is done days or even weeks later.
There are presumptive tests that show the presence of a substance but not the amount or concentration of it. Further testing is always needed to confirm the initial results. You were asked to cooperate with a safety plan while that process took place. It doesn't seem anyone did anything wrong- in fact everything happened right as everything you describe was done in the best interest in the well-being of your child.

I recall I once tested positive for opiates in a drug screening for employment. The looks and comments I got from the nurse were more than embarrassing and I had to explain it to the employer.
On my way to the drug test I had eaten a poppyseed muffin... I love those things. That quickly the poppy seeds had gotten into my system to trigger the presumptive test as it showed the presence of a substance, but days later the lab result returned and showed the concentration of the substance to be minuscule compared to what a heroin addict might have in their system.
No harm, no foul. It's just the way testing works.
 
Thank you for the reply but that doesnt address why there were negative test results that came back the same date we were coerced into signing a safety plan. That was 4 days ago that these results have been available and I still currently have to be supervised with my son?

And a doctor can say "someone in your house administered opiates to the baby" as if it was a fact based off a presumtive drug result? Non confirmed?

From what I read it is illegal for non confirmed drug results to be used for amything other then medical purposes.
 
You have likely been inconvenienced by the holidays with everything closed. This could have been resolved already.

If you saw something from the lab dated the same day you signed the safety plan that does not indicate that the social workers had received that information. It is very possible it was not received until a day or two after, or possibly not even received yet depending on how they communicate with the lab.

Yes, a doctor can say those things the same as anyone else. Whether it is professional or discourteous to do so is a different argument.

I don't know what you might have read about presumptive drug tests, but I can tell you that the scenario you describe is perfectly normal, and those doctors and social workers would not have been doing their job if they hadn't taken the action they did.
It is an inconvenience to you, and perhaps embarrassing, but it is temporary and almost over.
Fortunately you at least get to spend time with your child and haven't been separated for several days.
 
"Inconvenienced & perhaps embarrased" arent even close to words I would use to describe being outright accused by medical professionals of child abuse.

And what I read about presumptive drug testing is referring to very similar cases where they settled for around $150,000.

I appreciate your replies just not quite sure I agree with you 100%. Let me ask you this... I have the option to revoke the safety plan at any time, in doing so they would have to get an emergency court order so they could come take my child. Thats what it says on the agreement I signed. Do you think that would be legal under these circumstances ?

Happy new year
 
Im saying would it be legal for them to get a court order approved to come take my child.

I have the option to revoke the safety plan.. but it says law enforcment would be notified and they would take my son.

there is currently confirmed negative drug results. This whole thing is based off a false positive. This case is not being properly investigated. Im concerned about the legality of them coming and taking my son.
 
I understand they can go court on this.. they have the the burden of explaining why they are trying to take my son.

but an order to take him could be approved in court based off the the false positive?
 
If they want to remove the child from your custody against your will it will require a court order. If everything you say is true they will likely not have a compelling argument to convince a judge to sign off on it, if they even seek it.
One could only wonder how they would know you were unsupervised anyway.

Safety plans are a gimmick. They really don't mean anything. They are a tool to get people to comply, but completely voluntary.
 
Its not a medical issue that he was hospitalized for 5 days & the medical staff came to the conclusion he was "near death as a result of opiate poisoning". We recieved medical mistreatment & false allegations as a result of a false positive drug test. Non confirmed tests were forwarded to police & there was a special victims unit detective at my house today. They were forwarded non confirmed drugs tests immediately but they still havent been forwarded the negative confirmed test results yet? Seems like negligence to me but I dont know too much. I left messages for multiple attorneys over the weekend just havent heard back because of the holiday but this is driving me nuts.

Would it be okay if I posted this on a different part of the forum?
 
Nineteen said:
Would it be okay if I posted this on a different part of the forum?
Click to expand...

No. We all read all the forums here and you should keep to this one thread. No matter what you ask about your situation, it's all one topic and someone will respond or if the answer is not known here will recommend that you see an attorney.

I've deleted the other thread to avoid parallel discussions.

You are on the right track by contacting attorneys. Nothing will happen overnight. Might take weeks for you to actually get a consultation with an attorney so be patient until you can review your options.

There's really no way any of can tell you if you have a case or not. An attorney will have to review the entire situation and the records that go along with it.
 
You signed an agreement. It is binding. Whether the other party would take it to court if you terminated the agreement and what a judge might decide based upon whatever evidence might be presented by either party is entirely speculative. We have no way of knowing the timeline or the whole picture; just what you chose to share. For instance we have no way of knowing if there was another reason for concern of the welfare of your infant. Heck, you might not even know that as details of investigations are not shared with the parties being investigated for reasons which should be obvious.

You seem to expect that someone from the lab should have raced in with the results of the latest test to stop you from signing a voluntary agreement. You assume the results alone would have ended the need to recommend a plan to ensure the child's welfare and that isn't necessarily the case. You are the party with the most at stake. If the results were available before you signed the agreement, it was up to you to obtain them.
 
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