Plan B Forum

A US woman whose newborn was taken from her because she failed a hospital drug test after eating a poppy seed bagel has won a settlement, says her lawyer.

A child welfare agency and hospital in Pennsylvania have paid Elizabeth Mort $143,500 (£94,500) for the mistake.

Her three-day old daughter, Isabella, was removed from her for five days in April 2010.

The lawsuit argued that the opiate test in question had a far lower threshold than federal guidelines.

Jameson Hospital failed to inform Ms Mort that she had failed the test, then reported it to Lawrence County children and youth services without a secondary test.

"Elizabeth Mort never imagined that the last thing she ate before giving birth to her daughter - a poppy seed bagel - would lead to the loss of her newborn, but that is exactly what happened after the Jameson Health System failed to account for the possibility that her positive urine drug screen was due to her ingestion of poppy seeds," the lawsuit said.

Child welfare officials arrived the day after the family returned from hospital with an emergency protective custody order and took Isabella.

She was later returned after the agency could find no evidence Ms Mort had used illegal drugs.

The lawsuit, which was filed on her behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), was settled on Tuesday.

ACLU officials said Jameson had changed its policy to ensure newborns were not taken from parents solely on the basis of maternal drug test results.

"We hope that this case will encourage hospitals that routinely test pregnant women for drug use to reconsider that practice due to the harm that can result from false positives," said ACLU lawyer Sara Rose.

Don't they watch "Mythbusters"?

And I like the way entities that rely on such tests for determinations of whether someone is still eligible for bail, parole, etc. have reacted to their lack of specificity - rather than acknowledge that the tests are flawed, they have redefined what constitutes a breach of conditions to include eating products containing poppy seeds or other food products that create false positives, whether they do so knowingly or not.

Back in the 1990s when I was doing this kind of thing they tested people eating poppy seeds in different forms and found that it took quite a lot. If you were eating them "German style", which is a thick layer of poppy seeds in butter, you could get a very low-level positive test.

It could be that testing has become more sensitive but NIDA* established levels for a positive test back then. I don't see why they would lower them. I have no idea if the tests used by mythbusters (are those guys great or what?) conform to the NIDA standards.


yrs,
rubato

The National Institute on Drug Abuse.

If testing has become more sensitive, then it is likely that it has become less specific as a consequence. And I don't trust most users of these tests to use only those that conform to NIDA standards.

The hospital acted precipitously and caused the woman some temporary emotional anguish.

$143,000.

What a world.

BTW, Elizabeth Mort is no relation to the earth person f/k/a DaveMort, with whom I share a body.

It may have been a routine occurrence in your household to have your children put into the system, but there are some parents for whom the prospect of losing their kids is a big deal.

Scooter wrote:If testing has become more sensitive, then it is likely that it has become less specific as a consequence. ... "

Not generally a true statement in the world of chemistry. It depends on how the test works.

And in the case of drug testing the tests were much more sensitive than the NIDA limits, back then.

In this case I'd have a quantitative method used which should sort out very quickly if the blood levels were consistent with incidental exposure.

yrs,
rubato

Re-reading the OP it would appear (at least that is the allegation) that the test used did not meet federal guidelines.

I've peed in a cup in rehabs and out-patient treatment centers. They can tell the difference between a user and a bagel eater. More than one "offender" used the poppy bagel excuse to no avail.

I am guessing the hospital saw a positive, did not check the guidlines and jumped the gun.

Came across this:

The suit argued that Jameson Hospital used a much lower threshold for drug screening than federal guidelines, resulting in more false positives from common foods and medicines. The federal standard is 2,000 nanograms per milliliter, but Jameson Hospital used a reading of 300 nanograms, according to the lawsuit.

http://news.yahoo.com/pa-mom-settles-su ... 25243.html

This "zero tolerance" crap has got to stop, NOW!

Drug tests are idiotic in the first place, because they don't accomplish anything useful, from a business point of view...

One of the reasons I threw in the towel nine years ago with the company I was working for was this stupidity...

I persuaded a woman who was the Executive Director of The Oakland City Of Commerce...

A person who brought a huge number of established business contacts with her...

To come to work for us...

This should have been considered a major coup on my part...and it was by my immediate Regional Manager superior...

But not by The Home Office in Virginia Beach, who instead of looking at the fact that she had failed the "pot test" part of the drug test, (she had a medically accepted reason for having pot in California; and this was in the days before that sort of thing was passed out easily ) as something to use as an excuse for hiring her...

These morons saw it as a deal breaker, and set their attorneys to the task of finding out whether they could refuse her employment despite what she brought to the table, despite the laws in California.....

I was notified triumphantly that despite the laws in California, their attorneys had assured them that I wouldn't be forced to hire this "pot head"...

As if that had been my concern...

And that was when the light bulb went off over my head, and I came to the conclusion...

It may be risky, but no matter what I'm paid by them, if I continue to work for people who are dumber then I am I won't achieve anything...

Rather take my own chances...

I started out with a copy of "HTML For Dummies"; drilled a lot of dry holes...

But things have worked out okay...

ETA:

I will never, ever, ever again work for a person who's judgement is worse than mine....

I would rather eat grass ...

I'd rather smoke grass, but then again...........that's just me.