I just found the following story online {which I shortened}, which seems very similar to that of my GF. - - Parents in California lost custody of their daughter for 11 months or so, when the hospital reported them for Munchausen, i.e. Factitious Disorder. This story shows that some or maybe many hospitals have child abuse investigation teams to investigate clients for possible abuse. They say 7% of victims of Munchausen by proxy die, but I suspect that that figure is greatly exaggerated and that the real purpose of the child abuse investigation teams is to help prevent lawsuits against the hospitals (like the lawsuit my GF intended to file against the hospital she took her daughter to). All they have to do is make one or two reports to CPS {in Illinois it’s DCFS}, and judges immediately let them take child custody away from parents (these parents were even involved in the healthcare system), so the parents have to waste time and money trying to regain custody. Notice in this story that Nienow developed the plan to surveil the family in the hospital in order to gather evidence of Munchausen by proxy. I have suspected since reading parts of the IL Juvenile Court Act, or maybe since seeing the second petition {against my GF} from Feb. 13, that they want to keep {her daughter} for 15 months in order to help prove abuse, if her symptoms improve. In the story below it says: "If the child’s condition improves as a result {of being in the state's custody}, that’s reliable evidence of potential medical abuse." Notice also, that a Superior Court returned the girl to her parents' custody. It seems to be way harder to win in lower courts, because states pass laws that are unconstitutional, so it’s only after going to superior courts for civil rights violations etc, that it’s somewhat easier to win, if one can afford it or learns the law sufficiently.
Rady Children’s Hospital secretly surveilled teen and her parents in failed attempt to prove abuse (Nov. 7, 2023)
Madison Meyer spent much of her early adolescence suffering from a mysterious illness that caused broken bones, dislocated joints and chronic pain, and led to multiple surgeries. An initial diagnosis pointed to a connective tissue disorder. But as her health continued to fail, Madison and her parents, Bill Meyer and Dana Gascay, criss-crossed the country in a desperate search for doctors who could explain what was stealing her childhood.
... Meyer and Gascay both spent their careers in health care working for Kaiser Permanente. Meyer helped open medical facilities and hospitals around Southern California, and also assisted with the rollout of new technology within the company. Gascay held various leadership roles in program development and in the neonatal intensive care unit.
... {Madison} dislocated her shoulder in 2016. “She was at surf camp, had fallen off the surfboard and hit her shoulder in the sand,” Gascay recalled. The dislocated shoulder never healed properly and continued to pop out of its socket. Madison underwent surgery to stabilize the joint, which initially showed promise, until a physical therapist accidentally dislocated the shoulder again. Her doctors eventually diagnosed her with a genetic connective tissue disorder called hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Common symptoms include overly flexible joints and chronic pain; the condition can also result in a variety of health complications.
... By the fall, Madison had spells of dizziness from dysautonomia, a nervous system disorder. She underwent a battery of tests at Kaiser Permanente’s San Diego Medical Center as doctors struggled to wrap their arms around her sprawling ailments. Her team transferred Madison to Los Angeles, where her health deteriorated further. Her vision began to fail; she started experiencing non-epileptic seizures. She eventually required a feeding tube and central venous catheter to get essential nutrients and fluids.
... In December 2018, according to court documents, an anonymous caller dialed San Diego County’s child abuse hotline. They claimed Gascay was abusing her ailing daughter by tampering with her IV pump and interfering with medical staff. To Madison’s parents, it sounded preposterous. ... But the county is required to investigate any credible allegations of abuse. A child welfare investigator named Kayla Valenzuela interviewed Meyer, Gascay, Madison and members of the medical team. One doctor acknowledged that some nurses disliked Gascay for supposedly "babying" her ailing daughter, the lawsuit alleges, but the doctor emphasized there was no evidence of child abuse. ... Valenzuela eventually closed the child welfare investigation and “no findings were made,” according to the county’s response to the complaint. Yet, it didn’t end there.
During her investigation, Valenzuela contacted Nienow, the child abuse pediatrician at Rady. Nienow has a high profile in her field. In addition to her role at Rady, she’s the clinical director of Child Abuse Pediatrics at UC San Diego School of Medicine and helps lead the American Academy of Pediatrics’s Council on Child Abuse and Neglect. Nienow reviewed Madison’s medical record and grew alarmed. She suspected potential medical child abuse — another name for Munchausen by proxy. So Nienow, according to the complaint, developed a plan.
38 days of covert surveillance. Nienow recommended placing Madison in a Rady hospital room equipped with hidden video surveillance when the ailing teenager returned from New York. ... The Meyer family alleges Nienow then instructed Elizabeth Reese, a member of the child protection team at Rady, to call the county’s child abuse hotline and make another report against Meyer and Gascay. Reese allegedly told the county that Madison, with the involvement of her mother, was purposely dislocating her shoulder, faking seizures and feigning partial blindness. The county again assigned Valenzuela to investigate. ... What the surveillance didn’t capture, according to the Meyer family, was evidence of abuse.
... Meanwhile, the county pursued its investigation after the second hotline referral. Valenzuela again interviewed Meyer and Gascay, according to court documents. The parents claim Nienow never spoke to them. Valenzuela also interviewed Madison’s doctors. The complaint quotes several of her physicians, who allegedly told Valenzuela that they saw no evidence of abuse or interference by Madison’s parents. The specialist in New York specifically explained how doctors sometimes mistake Ehlers-Danlos syndrome for Munchausen by proxy, according to the complaint. Throughout her investigation, Valenzuela also maintained consistent communication with Nienow to discuss the suspicion that Madison was a victim of medical abuse at the hands of her parents, according to court documents.
The Meyer family alleges Nienow submitted a report to Valenzuela in February that contained surprising claims of medical child abuse. For example, according to the complaint, Nienow claimed Madison didn’t break her finger, foot and wrists in 2013, and that she was treated for multiple fake fractures at the insistence of her parents. Nienow, in a response filed in court, acknowledged writing the February report but didn’t address its specific contents. Nienow followed up with another report, according to the complaint, claiming Meyer and Gascay had to be “immediately removed” in order to prevent their daughter from dying. Valenzuela used these reports and other evidence to petition a judge to place Madison in protective custody. The judge issued a warrant on March 7, 2019, to remove Madison from the care of her parents and scheduled future hearings for additional review of the medical child abuse allegations.
... Meyer said he received an urgent call from Rady, asking him to return immediately. He left his half-eaten dinner and encountered staff and security members when he arrived at the hospital. They led him to a conference room, where Valenzuela, Reese and others were waiting, according to the complaint. Valenzuela told Meyer he and his wife no longer had custody of their daughter. The hospital revoked their parental access badges. ... Child abuse and juvenile custody cases are closely guarded by the judicial system and typically are not available to the public. While the Meyer family’s ongoing civil litigation has shed some light onto the custody proceedings, much of the information introduced into federal court has been sealed by the judge.
... In February of 2020, Michael J. Imhoff, the San Diego County Superior Court commissioner, awarded custody of Madison to Meyer and Gascay. But 11 months of separation — after more than a month of alleged covert video surveillance — took its toll.
... Hospitals and child abuse pediatricians have used covert surveillance to investigate many suspected cases of Munchausen by proxy in recent decades. Studies have found it can be an effective tool for gathering evidence. But the practice has sparked impassioned debate among medical and legal experts for as long as it’s been implemented.
“On the face of it, it's both unethical and unnecessary,” said Michael Flannery, distinguished professor of law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s William H. Bowen School of Law. When using video surveillance, he argues, medical staff are required to let the child abuse play out in order to gather evidence. Flannery believes a more ethical — and effective — approach is to temporarily separate the parents from a child or require supervised visits. If the child’s condition improves as a result, that’s reliable evidence of potential medical abuse. Flannery reviewed the Meyer family’s complaint and was troubled by the alleged use of covert video surveillance. “It struck me as just violative of the family's Fourth Amendment right to privacy,” he said.
... Beatrice Yorker, professor emerita of nursing and criminal justice at California State University Los Angeles ... said hospitals should use covert video surveillance after doctors have ruled out other likely causes of an ailment. Yorker, who has led trainings and written articles on diagnosing Munchausen by proxy, emphasized the incomprehensible and horrific nature of these cases. She’s reviewed cases, for example, where a mother has smothered her child and claimed they suffered from sleep apnea; in other cases, mothers have induced E. coli sepsis in their children. (Yorker notes, and research affirms, that most cases involve a mother.)
... The Meyer family claims they fall on the innocent victim end of the moral equation. Surveilled, stigmatized, torn apart — and now left to put the pieces back together. The family said they intend to prove as much in court. “I don't want this to happen to another innocent family,” Gascay said. “This is unconscionable.”