Mom settles suit: Poppy seed bagel led to false positive in hospital drug test
| Pittsburgh
A woman 鈥� who had her newborn taken away because she failed a hospital聽drug聽test聽after she ate a poppy聽seed聽bagel 鈥� has聽settled聽a lawsuit聽over聽the case.
Lawrence County's child welfare agency and Jameson Hospital have paid $143,500 to聽settle聽the聽suit聽filed on behalf of Elizabeth Mort by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which announced the settlement Tuesday.
Mort sued in October 2010, alleging that a聽poppy聽seed聽bagel she ate shortly before arriving at the hospital spurred a positive聽testf or opiates in April 2010. That test prompted the state seizure of her 3-day-old daughter, Isabella Rodriguez.
Mort said she was home with her baby when a county child welfare caseworker arrived with an emergency protective custody order and took Isabella.
The lawsuit alleged Mort was never told in the hospital that she had failed a聽drug聽test, nor was she asked if she had eaten anything that could have affected the聽test聽results.
The infant was returned five days later, after local officials agreed there was no evidence the mother had used illegal聽drugs.
The聽suit聽argued that Jameson Hospital used a much lower threshold for聽drug聽screening than federal guidelines, resulting in more false positives from common foods and medicines. The federal standard is 2,000 nanograms per milliliter, but Jameson Hospital used a reading of 300 nanograms, according to the lawsuit.
ACLU officials said Tuesday the hospital and county have implemented policy changes so newborns aren't taken from parents based only on maternal聽drug聽tests, which can be inaccurate.
"We hope that this case will encourage hospitals that routinely聽test聽pregnant women for聽drug聽use聽to reconsider that practice due to the harm that can result from false positives," said Pennsylvania ACLU staff attorney Sara Rose.
