Docs betrayed me
Mum wrongly accused of jabbing She claims medics were angry her sick baby with Parkinson’s drug after she asked for hospital switch
A MUM was separated from her sick baby for three days after being wrongly accused of injecting her with a Parkinson’s drug.
Emma Chatfield, 26, was handcuffed on the ward by police and locked up for 14 hours after she asked to transfer 11-week-old Freya to another hospital.
She believes she and husband Tom, 25, were punished for wanting to move their daughter.
The mum-of-three was barred from seeing any of her children until blood tests proved her innocence.
She said: “It was a nightmare. Being marched to that cell was the lowest moment of my life.
“You put your trust in doctors but they completely shattered that trust.
“I thought I was going to lose my kids. We felt like we were punished for asking to move Freya.”
Tom was asleep at a nearby hotel with children Teddy, three, and Ophelia, one, when four police officers stormed in at 3am.
He said: “It makes my blood boil. They told me Emma had been arrested on GBH charges. The kids didn’t know what was going on, my son was in total shock.”
Freya became ill at five weeks and was taken from her home in Margate, Kent, to Evelina London Children’s Hospital in Lambeth. Emma and Tom, a healthcare assistant, were unhappy with her care there and asked for a transfer to their local hospital.
Doctors refused, saying the child was not “stable enough”.
Hours later, Emma was arrested as she left Freya’s highdependency unit.
She said: “As the lift opened, two police were waiting. They said, ‘We are arresting you on suspicion of GBH because we believe you have administered a poison or medication to Freya’.
“They restrained me and cuffed my arms behind my back.”
Emma was taken to a cell where
Two police were in the lift. They arrested me and cuffed my hands EMMA ON HER ARREST AT DAUGHTER’S HOSPITAL
she was left from 1am until interviews began at 3pm. Detectives told her tests showed selegiline hydrochloride in Freya’s system.
Emma was eventually released and stayed with relatives during the three-day fight to get access to her children. Her husband was also cautioned.
On September 15, the hospital told her the test was an “anomaly”. Emma said: “The police were apologetic but the doctors didn’t really say sorry.”
Freya, who has a suspected bowel disorder, was transferred to a Margate hospital the next day. A spokesman for Evelina Hospital said: “It is our duty to protect children.
“Toxicology testing may be carried out when causes of symptoms cannot be found and this often requires a number of stages before a final diagnosis.”