Sunday, May 3, 2009

Take the Parent out of Foster



A while back I saw this story on 20/20 about Hannah Overton, a foster mom convicted of killing her 4 year old foster son because she did not seek medical attention in time. It scared me. She loved her children. She went to church. Nothing out of the ordinary.
The boy dies at the hospital of salt over-dose. The dad is now home with with their five kids.
It is a scary thing, being a foster parent. Maybe I was naive. The foster care system puts kids in homes to let them feel like they have parents, then the system strips them of all parental intuition. We, foster parents, are not allowed to administer Tylenol in the middle of the night for a fever or teething. We are to call the doctor at 3 in the morning and get permission from the doctor to administer Tylenol. They put kids in your home and tell you that these are not the normal kids. Have child proofing throughout the house because if some accident happens you will be charged.
If you remember when our foster baby was sick with bronchiolitis. This was the scariest thing. After watching the Hannah Overton story, I knew that if I needed medical attention I had better call the ambulance. The baby stopped breathing 3 times that week. We called the ambulance 2 times. I took her to the ER 3 times because of breathing difficulty. Erman and I would stay up all night rotating holding.
Another time she went on a visit with her bio mom and she dropped her out of the carseat because she forgot to buckle her in. When the driver arrived she told what happened and that she was "checked out at the facility". I called the worker immediately. She was gone. It was Friday around 5 pm. On Monday morning she called me frantic to get her to the ER. "What if she has a concussion." The nurse that visits her told me that I want any fracture or fall documented because if that fractured her skull and it was never documented that she fell on her bio mom's time it would be me they would look at. I took her to the ER and they took one look at her and said "normal". The nurse later told me that I should have made then take a x-ray to document if there was a simple fracture.
The CPS worker of my four yr old would inform me that I needed to take him to the doctor for an abrasion on his ankle. They would accuse me of feeding him foods that were manufactured in a facility that made dairy products. When he was fed weekly allergen foods at visits because workers failed to monitor his food. And of course, threaten that they were going to investigate me because I had dogs and he was allergic to dogs. Even though the doctor had stated that it was fine. The last 6 months have been a constant fear that he may have an accident and I would be found inadequate as a mother. The nurse involved with the case said, "let them investigate you, they won't find anything". But, I want nothing more than to as far away from CPS.
How can foster parents be true parents when they have this constant worry?
My four year old was scheduled to have an adnoidectomy. CPS called and told me they needed to move him one week after surgery because he needed to be in a home to properly care for his medical needs. Yet, they were going to let me bring him home after a surgical procedure? I told them I would not take a child to have a surgical procedure if they felt he was not being taken care of.
I absolutely loved him. I feel like I have had to let one of my own children go in order to protect my others.
The system is failing. It needs major renovating. Foster Homes are not the answer. Orphanages are not the answer.

1 comment:

Dean and Maryellen said...

Very hard to even think something like that can happen. I forward the freehannah site to all my email friends. Keep it up Jess.