COMMENTARY: "County settles with mother who lost newborn after erroneous drug test," by Radley Balko, published by the Eashington Post, pn March 17, 2014.
GIST: "An ill-timed pasta salad meal just before labor resulted in a Pennsylvania woman losing her newborn for 75 of the first 78 days of the child’s life. Eileen Ann Bower failed a routine post-delivery drug test because of the poppy seeds in her salad. Lawrence County, Pa., just settled Bower’s subsequent lawsuit for $160,000. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that this wasn’t a one-off incident.........A study of hospitals in Florida found that the discrepancy extends to reporting women as well — even among women who tested positive, hospital staff were 10 times more likely to report the positive tests from black women to state authorities than the positive tests from white women. And in some states, the penalties can be quite a bit worse — pregnant women and new mothers who fail drug tests can be arrested and prosecuted for child abuse. None of this is to diminish the seriousness of babies born with addiction. Despite the history of exaggerated media reports on both the prevalence and effects of babies born with a drug addiction, they’re obviously less healthy than babies born without an addiction. They still require more treatment and care. And no one would argue that a new mother with a drug habit presents all sorts of problems for both mother and child. But even if these tests were 100 percent accurate, treating both patients for addiction seems like a far more humane policy than yanking a newborn from his mother’s arms — or sending the mother to prison."
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/03/17/county-settles-with-mother-who-lost-newborn-after-erroneous-drug-test/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
I look forward to hearing from readers at:
hlevy15@gmail.com.
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
