San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
SUIT ALLEGES SECRET VIDEO OF TEEN
Parents’ complaint cites use of hidden cameras at Rady in abuse probe
Two parents are suing San Diego County for allegedly opening a child-abuse investigation and seizing custody of their daughter unlawfully. The lawsuit also names Rady Children’s Hospital for allowing secret, around-the-clock video surveillance in the girl’s hospital room to try to catch her parents harming the child.
The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in February by William Meyer and Dana Gascay, who allege civil rights violations similar to those in numerous lawsuits the county has paid millions to settle in recent years.
Unlike the other lawsuits, this complaint accuses county childwelfare officials of approving secret video surveillance of the teenage girl in her private hospital room at Rady Children’s for a month in 2019. County social workers hoped to catch one or both parents committing medical child abuse, the suit alleges.
“The intrusion into plaintiffs’ private affairs was unconsented-to physical and/or sensory intrusion, the nature and scope of which is highly offensive to a reasonable person,” said the complaint, which says the girl was born in 2003.
“Defendants intentionally intruded into the plaintiffs’ private affairs by placing, without plaintiffs’ consent or knowledge, the (video) devices in the room set to record 24 hours per day, seven days per week, for an unspecified amount of time believed to be approximately thirty consecutive days.”
Ultimately, a juvenile court commissioner found that the girl had not suffered — nor was she at risk of suffering — physical harm at her parents’ hands, the lawsuit said.
The girl, who was still hospitalized at Rady, was ordered released back into the custody of her parents.
The plaintiffs’ lawyer said the parents had been able to visit the girl only at Rady’s discretion in the 11 months they were without guardianship, but they were “typically” denied visits and had no control over her medical care.
County officials did not respond to requests for comment. The county typically declines comment on pending lawsuits.
Carlos Delgado, a spokesman for Rady Children’s Hospital, provided a brief statement in response to questions from The San Diego Union-tribune.
“Our top priority is providing the highest level of care to our patients and families,” it said. “The hospital does not comment generally on pending litigation and cannot comment specifically on this case due to patient privacy protections under federal and state law.”
According to the lawsuit, the girl’s doctors suspected abuse because they did not understand her diagnosis, a hypermobile type of Ehlersdanlos Syndrome.
The inherited syndrome causes symptoms such as loose joints vulnerable to dislocation, premature osteoarthritis, muscle soreness, tissue fragility and heart problems. It also is known to cause a diverse and lengthy list of other clinical manifestations.
Unable to properly diagnose their patient, the Rady Children’s doctors became “laser focused” on child abuse as a possible explanation for the girl’s condition and failed to provide the medical care she needed, according to the lawsuit.
“When they could not figure out what to do they inexplicably leaped to a bizarre conclusion that the parents were responsible,” said Ronald Blumberg, the Solana Beach attorney representing the parents.
“These health care providers then used the overwhelming power of CPS (child protective services) to define the cause of this girl’s medical needs, thereby further abdicating responsibility.
“Rady does good things for many, but not this time,” he said.
Blumberg said the facts of the case are disturbing and the fallout is multifaceted.
“Not only has a family been destroyed, but a young girl was denied proper medical attention,” he said. “Had the defendants focused on finding the proper care for this girl, instead of assigning blame to the parents, all of this could have been avoided.”
According to the complaint, the girl’s medical problems started disrupting her life in 2016, when she hurt her shoulder during surf camp. Later that same year, the shoulder dislocated again and her elbow hyperextended while she was doing push-ups in a physical education class.
In 2017, a geneticist referred by the girl’s orthopedic surgeon diagnosed her condition as a hypermobile type of Ehlers-danlos Syndrome. The girl had surgery on her shoulder but the dislocations became more frequent and her pain became harder to control, the lawsuit asserts.
The girl’s physicians referred her to Rady Children’s outpatient pain program but the treatment was not successful.
By 2018, the girl developed complications such as chronic pain and other conditions. Her doctors and parents subsequently sent the girl to Los Angeles for further treatment but that also proved ineffective, the lawsuit said.
Soon after her return to San Diego, in December 2018, the parents were informed that county Child Welfare Services workers had received an allegation of child abuse against them. About a month later, they were told the investigation was closed without any findings of abuse.
In early 2019, at the recommendation of the girl’s doctors, her parents sent her to New York be seen by a neurosurgeon,
the lawsuit said. But soon after that, doctors at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego began the process of transferring her to Rady Children’s — without informing the child’s parents.
Once at Rady Children’s, doctors or others were asked to review the girl’s “medical records for Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, also known as Fictitious Disorder Imposed on Another, or Medical Child Abuse,” the complaint said.
Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy is typically described as a mental-health problem in which a caregiver fabricates or causes an illness or injury to a person in their care. It can be extremely difficult to diagnose, so some hospitals sometimes allow covert patient surveillance to determine what is causing the harm.
The lawsuit said the hidden-camera surveillance was not authorized or consistent with Rady’s Children’s policies.
On Feb. 28, 2019, a county child-welfare worker told the parents the county had received a complaint alleging the parents were not supporting the girl’s psychiatric and dietary needs.
“Plaintiffs were shocked at the allegations (the county) presented, as the plaintiffs were doing everything they could, as parents, to provide the best treatment and care for their child, under the watchful eye of many treating physicians,” the lawsuit said.
A week later, without speaking further with the parents, county child-welfare officials removed the father from the girl’s hospital bedside, telling him there were “judicial orders to temporarily remove the girl from (the parents’) custody,” according to the complaint.
The parents challenged the abuse allegations in juvenile dependency court and prevailed early last year, the complaint said. The plaintiffs learned about the use of hidden cameras through the trial’s discovery process.
At the close of the proceeding, the commissioner overseeing the case “noted his concerns” about the covert surveillance in the girl’s hospital room, the lawsuit said.
Even after the plaintiffs regained custody of their daughter in February 2020, a doctor and officials at Rady Children’s tried to further limit the parents’ involvement in her medical care, according to the complaint, “including, but not limited to, subjecting (the girl) to medical tests and procedures without (her parents’) knowledge and/or consent, and by restricting (the parents) from accessing (their daughter’s) medical records.”
At some point, the defendants also placed the parents’ names in the Child Abuse Central Index without adequate investigation or justification, the lawsuit alleges.
The legal complaint asks the court for unspecified damages, attorney’s fees and court costs, along with whatever other relief the court deems proper.
Lawyers for the county and Rady Children’s have yet to respond in court to the complaint.