CTV Montreal
Published Tuesday, December 31, 2013 6:21PM
EST
Last Updated Tuesday, December 31, 2013
6:48PM EST
A Montreal couple is suing the Royal Victoria Hospital for
$60,000 after their newborn daughter was removed from her
custody to foster care shortly after birth, due to a false
positive result on a drug test.
Immediately after giving birth, Royal Victoria Hospital staff
informed Isabel Villeneuve that her urine had tested positive
for Methamphetamine and opiates and then refused to believe her
claims that she had not taken drugs while pregnant.
Only after the test was shown to be incorrect was she was
reunited with her daughter Kaia.
Baby Kaia is back with her mother Isabel Villeneuve. (CTV Montreal
Dec. 31, 2013)
A Montreal couple is suing the Royal Victoria Hospital for
$60,000 after their newborn daughter was removed from her custody to
foster care shortly after birth, due to a false positive result on a
drug test.
Immediately after giving birth, Royal Victoria Hospital staff
informed Isabel Villeneuve that her urine had tested positive for
Methamphetamine and opiates and then refused to believe her claims
that she had not taken drugs while pregnant.
Only after the test was shown to be incorrect was she was
reunited with her daughter Kaia.
Villeneuve now describes going from the most joyous moment of
her life to the most traumatizing. Giving birth was, “the most
beautiful thing I've ever done. I'm reminded of this and it
breaks my heart,” she told CTV Montreal.
After her child was taken away, the pain set in.
“We were a mess, absolutely destroyed,” she said. “I remember
we got back to our car that had the car seat in there for like
three weeks and that car seat was supposed to have her in it and
we came home and I was empty, no more baby, our home was all
ready for our baby and there was nothing.”
After six days, the hospital explained that the test was
incorrect and returned her baby but only on the condition she
live together with the baby’s grandparents.
Villeneuve finally got baby Kaia back without strings in
April when a more reliable drug test – taken from a strand of
hair – proved her claim of being drug free.
Earlier in her pregnancy, Villeneuve had informed her doctor
that she had previously smoked marijuana but had stopped once
she learned that she was pregnant.
The MUHC issued a writen statement stating that it needs to
be vigilant when it comes to ensuring a child’s safety and
positive drug tests require the hospital to inform youth
protection authorities.
"Healthcare professionals are required to be vigilant for
situations that may represent a threat to the safety of a child.
A potential concern, such as prior drug use during pregnancy,
can trigger additional action by healthcare professionals, which
may include ordering tests and counselling. If the outcome of
these additional actions highlights irregularities, the
healthcare professionals are obliged by both their code of
ethics and the youth protection act to inform the Direction de
la protection de la jeunesse (DPJ). Once the DPJ is involved,
they decide what further action, if any, is required, which may
include protective custody."
A Royal Victoria Hospital ombudsman's report stated that the
urine test is unreliable and posited that the positive result
could have stemmed from of medication for acid reflux that
Villeneuve was on at the time.
The family's lawyer says the hospital should have taken the
time to do more reliable tests
“She has been attacked in what is the most personal manner.
Someone thought that she wouldn’t be a good mother,” said family
lawyer Jean-Francois Mallette.
There is not a problem with "vigilant healthcare professionals".
Quebec has an excellent reputation compared to the Children's Aid
Societies of Ontario who apprehend children at birth at the
slightest excuse claiming "the mother might have a drug problem"
when 90% of the time, the mother is having a reaction to
prescription drugs.
The Child Protection "workers" then become accustomed to fabricating
evidence to support their desired conclusions.
The Children's Aid Society of Ottawa is guilty of this in numerous
cases and hopefully they will be sued.
The problem is they turn their make work projects upon the most
vulnerable in the community, and then systematically destroy parents
and their income to provide product for their cult like following of
prospective adoptive parents who wait in line like vultures.
The baby snatching business costs Ontario Billions of dollar and it
high time to scrap the CAS and have an accountable Ontario
Government Department of Child Protection.
www.StopCas.ca