Mom who lost custody of her child for eating a popppy seed bagel wins lawsuit
Pennsylvania: In April 2010, Elizabeth Mort was eating a poppy seed bagel on her way to the Jameson Hospital north of Pittsburgh to deliver her baby.
Days later, a child welfare caseworker showed up to her house with an emergency protective custody order and seized her 3-day-old daughter Isabella over a failed drug test for opiates…all because of the bagel.
You see, the drug opium is derived from the poppy seed plant, and poppy seed bagels contain trace amounts of opiates. Not enough to get you high, but apparently enough to show up on a drug screening.
The baby was returned 5 days later after local officials agreed there was no evidence that the mother had used illegal drugs, like a Seinfeld episode played out in real life.
Mort filed suit in October 2010, alleging that the hospital never informed her of the failed drug test. Jameson Hospital used a much lower threshold for drug screening than what’s required by federal guidelines. The federal standard is 2,000 nanograms per milliliter, but Jameson Hospital used a reading of 300 nanograms, according to the lawsuit.
The hospital and the county’s child welfare agency settled the lawsuit for $143,500.
"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.
http://gawker.com/mom-wins-lawsuit-after-losing-custody-of-newborn-over-p-653472224
PA. mother wins lawsuit over poppy seed bagel:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23153685
Elizabeth Mort and Alex Roderiguez v. Lawrence County Children and Youth Services lawsuit: http://www.aclupa.org/downloads/Mortcmplnt.pdf