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Pregnant women are told to watch what they eat. For one Pennsylvania woman, the choice of a poppy seed bagel the afternoon before she went into labor meant the temporary loss of her newborn daughter.
Elizabeth Mort’s 3-day-old daughter, Isabella, was seized from her in April 2010 after Jameson Hospital reported a positive test for opiates. After further investigation found no evidence that Mort had used drugs, her daughter was returned to her five days later.
In Mort’s suit against the hospital and the Lawrence County’s child welfare agency, the lawsuit stated that although 2,000 nanograms per milliliter is the federal standard for a positive drug test result, Jameson Hospital used a reading of 300 nanograms. Mort said that the hospital never mentioned the positive test result to her while she was there, nor did they ask her what she had eaten the previous day.
Mort eventually won a settlement in July of 2013 against the child welfare agency and the hospital of $143,500.
Related articles:
Associated Press: “Pa. mom settles suit over poppy seed drug test”
BBC: “US mother wins lawsuit over poppy seed bagel”