In what appears to be an alarming trend, a 3-month-old baby girl was seized by Child Protective Services and UMC Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, Texas, over a medical disagreement. It has now been three weeks since her devastated mother has been able to see and hold her baby. The once happy baby Kathyrn was despondent when her mom last saw her because at the core of their being, babies NEED their mothers. There is a grassroots effort that has begun to help push back against the system and hopefully #BringKatHome .
Kathryn Hughes was born via an emergency c-section, and there were complications. According to Health Impact News, she was born on June 9, 2014, with a rare genetic condition called Pierre Robin Sequence, which typically includes a cleft soft palate.
Increasingly, there seems to be a pattern of connections of children being abducted by hospitals with connections to genetic research studies in collusion with CPS, such as the story of Justina Pelletier with mitochondrial disorder, taken by Boston Children’s Hospital, and the two Deigel sisters , as recently reported by The Inquisitr , at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Parental Rights and Health Impact News are working to expose other stories like these that are surfacing.
During a hospital stay at UMC Children’s Hospital on September 21, CPS and the hospital seized custody of baby Kathryn, over a medical accusation which Lorie and her family say is simply not true.
For the first whole week after the medical kidnapping, the family was not permitted to see her, and since that time, they have only had one other visit. That was three weeks ago. For an infant, it might as well be forever.
Lorie has uploaded videos to YouTube. The first one shows little Kathryn at home in her swing, happy and cooing. All she had ever known up until this point was the reality that mommy was right there with her, often skin-to-skin, loved and nurtured.
The next one shows her at the family’s first visit, a week after CPS kidnapped Kathryn. It is difficult to watch the drastic transformation that happened. She won’t make eye contact. She is like a different child. The contrast between the pictures and videos before and after she is taken is stark and jarring.
When babies aren’t with their mothers, it is devastating to them, no matter what the reason. They don’t understand “because CPS and the doctors believe they know better than your mom for you.” They don’t care. They want mom. Period. And this mom wants her baby back.
These pictures are breaking hearts as Kathryn’s story has begun circulating on social media. Lorie has a Facebook page set up: Bring Baby Kathryn Home .
@bringkathome http://t.co/8i3Bw0JRQY pic.twitter.com/7WuA2rfYez
— BirthPower (@Birthinpower) October 24, 2014
One mom has come up with a plan to do something about this horrifying situation. Because she and many others view the taking of baby Kathryn as a kidnapping, mom-activist Amanda Hooks has come up with a plan to do a “Phone Protest.” She is encouraging people all over the country to begin calling the Lubbock Police Department at 9 a.m. Monday morning to report this kidnapping. Activists are also calling for calls to the office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, Governor Rick Perry , and Senator Ted Cruz .
pic.twitter.com/vE5QnMoUkA — Lorie Blalock (@bringkathome) October 26, 2014
Another advocate for baby Kathryn Hughes recommends registering a complaint about the UMC Hospital by phone, at 1-866-523-6842, or by email, at [email protected].
Their hope is to bring attention to this story of injustice and medical kidnapping, and get this baby back to the family who loves her. She has an older brother and sister, twins who are almost two, who cry for their baby sister because they cannot understand why she isn’t there.
A frightening recent development is that Lorie has been ordered by ECI (Early Childhood Intervention), who works with CPS, to bring in the twins for genetic testing. She is in the awful position of wondering what the consequences will be if she takes them. She is being counseled by her attorney to comply because of the possibility of what the state may do if she refuses.
It was attention from the public that finally led to Justina Pellitier’s coming home after a long 16-month ordeal. She is still suffering devastating repercussions to her health as a result of her medical incarceration and the research testing she was unwillingly subjected to.
This is Kathryn’s story.
Despite Lorie’s objections at Kathryn’s birth, her baby was given the Hepatitis B vaccine. Lorie told the doctors that she herself had a history of reactions to that vaccine and the DTap shot, which resulted in seizures and an 18-hour period of non-responsiveness. She wanted to protect her child, in case her response was possibly genetic.
Baby Kat’s seizures didn’t begin till later in the summer, but they led to her not breathing on September 4. Lorie did what any parent would do. She started CPR and called 911. After being taken to the local hospital at first, she was later airlifted to UMC Children’s Hospital, where she would spend the next two weeks. The weeks following were filled with ups and downs, some days looking like she would get to go home, other days with the medical staff scrambling to get complications and multiple seizures she was still having under control.
On Thursday, September 18, Lorie was able to take her baby back home, with instructions on how to dilute the phenobarbital medication in order to administer 8 mg. per dosage through her feeding tube, instructions which Lorie says she followed to the last detail.
Two days later, the baby had more seizures, and ended up back at UMC in Lubbock.
The very next day, while Lorie was at the hospital with Kathryn, Child Protective Services came and seized custody of Kathryn, literally taking a 3-month-old baby from her mother’s arms. Lorie was shocked.
They accused her of not properly giving the medications, allegations which Lorie adamantly denies. She insists that she did everything that they told her to do because she wants her baby to get better. No one at UMC has yet been able to determine the cause of the seizures. Baby Kat was only out of the doctors’ care for two days out of the preceding 17 days. However, based on a blood test, CPS allegedly determined that the baby would be better off in medical foster care with a stranger.
Lorie had to beg just to be able to say goodbye to her baby at UMC hospital. Kathryn’s father and siblings were not even permitted to say goodbye, because they were not there at the time. CPS refused to allow them to come to the hospital after they took custody.
After reading her story, a long-time pediatric ICU nurse was very upset about Lorie and Kathryn’s treatment. She wrote to Lorie that she has been doing “all the right things.”
“There are any number of reasons that drug levels can be low, despite the facts that the meds are given as prescribed, seen it over and over! But to assume the worst is JUST ridiculous.”
Another messaged her that “any neurologist knows that anti-epileptic drugs can vary depending upon when the last seizure was, when the medication was given last, and how that child reacts to the medication.” That person believes that the seizure of baby Kathryn was planned in advance, and had nothing to do with what is being called a bogus accusation.
At any rate, Lorie is a broken-hearted mom who just wants just wants her baby Kathryn Hughes “back home in my arms and love and kiss on her!”
“Miss her and love her so much and would do anything to comfort her and hold her skin to skin on my chest and let her listen and relax to my scent my touch the sound of my heartbeat!!!!
“Please pray that she is okay! That God keeps his protecting arms wrapped around her and heals her!!!!!”
Concerned citizens, mothers, fathers, and grandparents throughout the country who have seen baby Kathryn’s story are outraged over this situation that literally could happen to anybody in Lorie’s shoes. Grassroots activists are hoping for people to get involved, make phone calls, write, and contact their legislators. This travesty of medical kidnapping and dividing loving families needs to end.
[Image via Facebook]