Chi-town — A family in Illinois is fighting the state’s Department of Child and Family Services, saying that the agency “unjustly” took their 7-month-old son away, which caused them to be apart for three months.
Victor Lucha, who lives in Cass County, told his story on Monday so that people who are going through the same thing could learn from it.
Lucha said, “This has been so traumatic that I can not even put it into words.”
The short break happened after the boy’s mother went to a doctor in Beardstown. The lawyer said the family was there to get a burn on the boy’s arm and some redness on his legs checked out.
In the lawsuit, it is said that after the boy’s mother took him to the doctor for skin problems, a case worker did not give her a Spanish-speaking translator to help them talk properly. It was also said in the complaint that a nurse practitioner called DCFS and officers picked up the child.
“There is no history of abuse or neglect in the family.” They did not really try to work together with family. Michelle Coady Carter of the Coady Law Group said, “It was really hard to get DCFS to do the right thing in this case.”
DCFS, the state of Illinois, two DCFS case workers, and two investigators are named in the lawsuit as having a hand in the case.
Company representative Coady Carter said, “DCFS can only take a child away from a family if that is the only option.” “That was obviously not the case in this case.”
During the many foster homes he went to, he started having trouble breathing. He began to lose weight. “He was very upset,” Coady Carter said. “He moved into a new house and did not know the language.” He began to fail to grow.
During the discovery process, the lawyers said that a case note from a doctor who looked at the child’s medical records showed that the discoloration on the child’s legs was not from bruises but from hyper pigmentation caused by citrus juice, which is common in Hispanic communities.
The lawsuit made it clear that the doctor also said it did not look like the burn was done on purpose. Lawyers also said that the decision was made less than 24 hours after the child’s first visit to the clinic.
Even so, it took three months for the child and parents to get back together.
“The only reason he went home was because the Cass County State’s Attorney Office helped get the case thrown out,” Carter Coady said.
Still, Lucha and his family want DCFS to pay them money and take responsibility, even though they are glad to have their son back.
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