Zachary Daugherty

For those of you who may not know us already....We are the Daugherty's: Kevin, Erin, Zoe and Zachary.   Our family has the unique challange of caring for Erin and both kids with a genetic connective tissue disorder called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.  Our family had a long journey of unexplained illnesses and injuries before we were finally diagnosed by a geneticist at CHOC Children's in Orange.  While finally figuring out what was the cause behind our strange symptoms it also began the challenge of raising the kids to have the best quality of life they can while protecting their joints and teaching them to manage their condition successfully!


Let us clarify that Erin and both kids were diagnosed by a licensed genetics doctor.  Erin was verified at RUSH Hospital in Chicago and Zachary was verified by Johns Hopkins Baltimore!  They are also diagnosed with extremely common comorbidities called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome by doctors who are licensed and specialists in the field.  The treatment plan the Daugherty's followed  is quite common for those affected by this trio and absolutely prescribed and ordered by the physician team.  


In March of 2017 The Daugherty's traveled to Puget Sound Washington to whale watch for Zachary's 10 th birthday celebration.  While in Seattle Zachary developed an acute infection and had a bad Mast Cell reaction.  He was taken to Seattle Children's Hospital.  The emergency room team at Seattle Children's spoke with Zachary's treating doctors home in Los Angeles a few times.  There was no question or issue raised about the diagnosis or treatment plan for the chronic issues.  Zachary was admitted to the general pediatrics floor and the medical team on the floor also spoke with a few of Zachary's care team in Los Angeles with no questions about the chronic issues or treatments in place.  The plan was to treat the acute infection until Zachary was stable and send us home to Los Angeles!   


But on day two a resident physician made a few mistakes that led to Zachary needing to have the Rapid Response Team called and given epinephrine and other rescue medications.  The Daugherty's spoke with hospital administration after this and requested that resident not care for their child any longer.  The hospital refused to take the doctor off the case.  Then things got a little crazy:  Zachary was in the operating room area for several hours when his central IV line was removed: this should have only taken maybe one hour but the Daugherty's never got an explanation.  Then the resident that had been fired refused to treat Zachary when he was really itchy with a simple dose of Benadryl.  The hospital staff refused to update the Daugherty's and began feeding him a different formula which made him sick.  Then, after The Daugherty's demanded a family conference with the care team, the hospital informed the family that they were being charged with Medical Child Abuse and Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.  The hospital took all rights to consent away from the family even though it would be another 10 days before Zachary was officially taken into protective custody by Seattle Police Department.  


Erin was questioned by the police but there was no evidence supporting any wrongdoing.  Seattle Children's staff lied and stated to Washington Child Protective services that they had contacted Children's Hospital of Los Angeles and all those doctors had admitted to malpractice!  Seattle claimed that all doctors in California said the diagnosis claimed by the mother were never made by them, all prescriptions were due to the mother's insistence and that Erin had demanded Zachary have a feeding tube and a central IV line placed in the operating room.  Seattle claimed to have read the entire chart and not one diagnosis was supported in the record.  This is of course ridiculous but what the Daugherty's discovered is even worse:  The report made by the social workers and Seattle doctors was believed at face value.  Not one court attorney or investigator actually checks any claim made in a child protection claim:  The social worker or child abuse MD is free to write whatever they like and it is believed by the court to be completely true.  It is believed so much that there is no reason for the court system to allow the accused or their attorney to make any statement on intake.  Social workers are believed and they have absolutely no repercussions for this lying or hiding truthful evidence.  


We got the Seattle courts to allow Kevin to keep physical custody of the Zachary has ling as Erin agreed to move out of the home.  The Daugherty's were allowed to return home to California where Orange County would take over the case.  This was April 2017 and the social workers in Orange County just needed to call the treating doctors and read the actual medical record:  BUt no.  The Orange County Social Workers just copied the report from Seattle and even added some extra malicious facts.   I mean, social workers are never questioned so I guess they figured it was all true.  The social worker at Children's Hospital of Los Angeles refused to let Kevin speak to any treating physicians and agreed that since the Seattle team had already claimed to have spoken to the doctors that must be true.  


We had to fight to get the medical records from all the providers because they are allowed to not give us the medical record during any abuse investigation.  The social workers and child abuse physicians claim they are experts and all the diagnosis are false and there is no reason for them to submit the official medical records to the courts.   Kevin flew the kids to a specialist in Rhode Island in January and the social workers first refused to submit this report to the court.  When the attorney argued then the social workers accused Erin of making the report herself!  In other words: Only the word of social workers, who are lying and suppressing exculpatory evidence, is being heard. It's not a case where they are being believed over the truth...only their side is heard.   There is no one to complain to or no one that can ever remove this from Erin's criminal record: even tho she has not been arrested or found guilty of any crime. The social workers can enter a name to the Department of Justice just because they believe the person is probably guilty.  


This must stop.  Laws like Justina's Law and The Parental Rights Amendments must be passed.  Laws that allow persuction when social workers lie must be put in place.  If this was a witch hunt, Erin would have already burned at the stake!