Teenager Isaiah Rider Speaks Out After Being Taken From His Mom In Medical Kidnapping Case

“I just want to be back with my mom… she never did anything wrong.” That is what teenager Isaiah Rider told the Inquisitr in an exclusive interview. His mother committed the “cardinal sin” of asking for a second opinion, and now the 17-year-old is at the center of a custody battle between the woman who has loved and cared for him since birth, and a hospital and CPS in Illinois — a state he only visited for the purpose of surgery for his rare medical condition, called neurofibromatosis, a rare condition which causes painful tumors on the nerves.

While the media and lawyers have discussed his “case,” Isaiah’s voice has been ignored, yet it is HIS life that is being decided.

The Inquisitr recently reported on the disturbing trend of children being removed from their parents’ custody over differences in medical opinion. Isaiah is one of those victims. According to Isaiah, Luries Children’s Hospital in Chicago “was trying to say that she medically abused me, but she didn’t.” He says that she was just doing what any parent would do. When his mother, who is a nurse by trade, saw her child in severe pain which continued for weeks following his surgery, she wanted the doctors to do something to help him with his pain, reports the Kansas City Star.

After the staff was unable to do anything about his pain or the seizures that began during surgery, Michelle asked for a second opinion and tried to transfer his care to a facility that might be able to do something for him. For that, Luries called in CPS and seized custody. Both Michelle and Isaiah report that this came out of nowhere. Never before, during years of Isaiah’s health problems, had anyone ever accused her of any wrongdoing in his care.

When his mother was told at the hospital that she couldn’t see her son anymore, Isaiah had no idea. He said that the hospital had him so drugged up on medications that he didn’t even realize what had happened at first. He was shocked when they told him that he wasn’t allowed to see his mom. The doctors blamed his mother, he says, saying that she medically abused him.

That charge of medical abuse is still being fought in court. Dr. Marc D. Feldman is considered to be the world’s leading authority on medical abuse and Munchausen by proxy. He told Health Impact News that he recently testified on Michelle’s behalf that medical abuse by the mother “did not happen.” Medical child abuse is a term that means that a parent is doing things to cause or exacerbate medical problems. Isaiah’s mother only wanted the doctors to help her son with a condition that he has and was suffering greatly from. The seizures at Luries began during surgery, while Isaiah was under general anesthesia.

“My mom had nothing to do with that.”

Further, Dr. Feldman states that “there appears to be literally no consideration of Isaiah’s desire to return home to his mother.”

Isaiah says that he is “still surprised” that they would do this to him and his family. He doesn’t understand why they are doing this. Isaiah and his mom have “always been close,” and he loves her very much. When asked if he thought the doctors considered how this would affect him emotionally, he said, “I don’t think they cared.”

“This has totally affected our whole family. There was no need for this. We have all been deeply affected by this separation. It would have been better if this wouldn’t have happened.”

Isaiah has not been permitted to testify on his own behalf. He has asked a number of times to speak, but has been silenced at every turn. He says he has a legal right to be at the hearings, but he has not even been permitted to be in court, even though this is his life they are discussing. His requests for a new guardian ad litem have been ignored. The reason that Isaiah made that request is because he doesn’t believe this person who is supposed to represent him is speaking for his best interests, acting one way with him and completely differently in court, according to Isaiah. He wants the state to “leave us alone; leave my mom alone.”

Despite everything he has been through, Isaiah still tries to be positive. His pictures from childhood up show a happy kid with a great smile. He misses being at home with his mom and having his room at his own house. He has been allowed to return to his home state of Missouri, but he isn’t at home yet.

He plans to go to college when he graduates high school. He told the Inquisitr that he wants to go into medicine in the future.

“I want to help people, just like my mom does.”

But he doesn’t want to be the kind of doctor that “lies to save their jobs” at the expense of the families they serve. Isaiah wants to be what he hasn’t seen recently, and take the very things that have been used to harm him and use them for good. He wants to see good come out of all the trauma that has come to him and his family. After all that he has suffered, Isaiah Rider believes that “God has some really good plans for me for the future.”

Team Isaiah is the Facebook page that has been set up by supporters working tirelessly to bring attention to Isaiah and Michelle Rider’s story. Sadly, there are many more families that are experiencing the devastation of medical kidnapping, such as baby Kathryn, the two Deigel sisters and Jaxon’s family‘s family. Many times the parents simply want a second opinion. Children whose parents are doing the best they can to secure help for their kids when they are sick increasingly find themselves battling the system as well as the illness. Their voices, like Isaiah’s, deserve to be heard. Isaiah Rider is a teenager who wants what any normal kid wants: to be home with his mom.

[image via Team Isaiah Facebook page]