TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – “A couple is preparing to sue the state’s child welfare agency claiming a case worker unnecessarily threatened to take their terminally ill child as he lay in bed dying.
Debbie and Richard Brand of Yulee were caring for their 9-year-old son, Ricky, at home after doctors told them the boy, suffering from bone cancer, had about a month to live.
They lowered his recommended dosage of pain relievers Dilaudid and Valium because it put the boy in a near comatose state and they wanted to be able to interact with him in his final days, according to a complaint filed against the Department of Children & Families.
A nurse who called the home heard the boy crying in the background and asked if the boy was in pain. The parents said, no, he was just frightened. A complaint was later filed with DCF, which sent an investigator to the home in August.
An investigator had been sent to the home two months earlier after receiving a call that the parents were refusing to get treatment for Ricky. The investigator closed the case after interviewing the family, which had taken the boy to the hospital for blood transfusions and other care.
During the second investigation, a case worker concluded that the boy was in excruciating pain and told the Brands he would be removed from the home unless they took him to the hospital. Ricky died in the car on the way to the hospital. The parents believe the trauma sped up the boy’s death. The also maintain that Ricky wasn’t in pain.
The DCF investigator and the boy’s physician, Dr. Phyllis Hendry, claim the parents were refusing to give him pain medication for religious beliefs, according to a police report and a DCF abuse report.
That is not true, said the couple’s lawyer, Larry Klayman.
“They did not deny the boy medication,” Klayman said. Ricky was alert, answered questions when the investigator was in the home and denied being in pain, Klayman said.
The complaint filed against DCF seeks additional records in the case. The department has refused to turn over documents related to their investigation, Klayman said. He is seeking the material to prepare a suit against the agency.
“The Brands deserved to be able to spend the final days of their son’s life with him in peace without having the government barge into their house, give them an ultimatum and effectively kill the boy prematurely – all in violation of their constitutional rights,” said Klayman, who was the founder of the Washington-based conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch.
DCF refused to comment on the case.
“Whenever a child dies, it is a tragedy that we feel very deeply. However, it is the Department’s policy not to comment any further on pending litigation,” DCF spokesman John Harrell said in an e-mail.
Hendry was aware of the parents’ concern over medication. They had refused to allow doctors to give the boy morphine. Hendry believed the parents would give him the recommended dosage of Dilaudid and Valium, according to his hospital discharge papers. She also wrote Ricky appeared to be in a loving home environment.
On the refusal to administer morphine, Hendry wrote “Although this is concerning, this is their right as a parent and they are not neglecting his other needs at this time. The health care team felt that it would be better for Ricky to stay with his family and receive somewhat suboptimal pain treatment” rather than “making another DCF referral and possibly have him removed from the home when he has such a limited time to live.”
Hendry didn’t immediately return a call Thursday seeking comment.”
My husband told me he saw a great bumper sticker the other day…it said “Social Services needs a good spanking!”
Jenny Hatch