In the seconds after Angela Bougher gave birth last winter, she and her husband Brian, a suburban Chicago pastor, were excited to hold their new baby girl.
Moments after their healthy daughter arrived, a nurse announced that it was time for the infant’s vitamin K shot. Brian and Angela Bougher, who said they are not “anti-vaxxers” or against any procedure they deem medically necessary, had declined the shot well before their daughter was born due to religious beliefs, according to a lawsuit obtained by The Chicago Tribune.
After refusing the shot, the nurse stated she was reporting the couple to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and left the room with the newborn. It was almost 12 hours before they got the child back, the couple said.
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According to the Boughers, who are now suing the hospital and DCFS, the nurse didn’t offer them the form to decline the vitamin K shot and instead said she was going to report the parents to DCFS.
The Bougher’s daughter, Glori, now one, was born on February 7, 2018, at the Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox. After the nurses took Glori, Angela and Brian said:
I felt a little bit like a prisoner. It was like they had condemned me and I had done something wrong and atrocious, but I didn’t know what that was so I couldn’t really fix it, and no one would really talk through the issue.
By the end I felt like as a father and a husband, I can’t protect my family and that we were robbed of the joy of our daughter being born.1
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Angela Bougher said through tears in a recent interview:
I honestly could not understand what was going on. I was in total shock. I’ve never not had my baby right away.1
Glori was born around 6:40am, and she wasn’t returned to the Boughers until 8pm that night. They were offered no explanation from the nurses or doctors as to why this happened.
The next day, a DCFS investigator spoke to the Boughers and told them that the doctors said the baby was healthy, so she was going to report that the medical neglect allegation was unfounded, according to the Tribune.
The Bougher’s federal lawsuit was filed jointly with several other parents. The suit accuses three hospitals, several doctors and current and former leaders of violating their constitutional rights after the births of their children.
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Like the Boughers, most of the parents recalled how their children were taken away from them for several hours after they declined the shot.
According to the Tribune, all of the cases were the results of a DCFS policy that classified parents’ refusal of their newborn’s vitamin K shot as medical neglect.
The lawsuit alleges that DCFS and medical staff violated state and federal law by inappropriately seizing newborns or threatening to do so, Richard Dvorak a lawyer for the families, told the newspaper.
Dvorak was referring to the fact that the DCFS policy was rescinded a year ago.
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All of the families are seeking monetary damages after they were traumatized when their babies were taken away for extended periods of time.
The lawsuit lists Silver Cross Hospital, the University of Chicago Medical Center and Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
