Too-caring mother loses girl to ACS
BY JESS WISLOSKI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
The city took custody of James'
daughter Amber last month, accusing the 5-year-old girl's parents of neglect.
"They appear to be suffering
from an unknown mental illness which causes them to act in a bizarre
manner," according to papers filed in Queens Family Court by the
Administration for Children's Services.
But James, 40, and her husband,
Marvin James, 48, contend that the neglect that they have been accused of stems
from concerns about their daughter's health.
"They said we took her to the
doctor too much," said Marvin James, who said Amber suffered a stroke and seizures
at birth and continues to have chest pains and skin rashes.
The Jameses
feel they are living every parent's nightmare. They are to argue for Amber's
return at a hearing today.
"I still don't know what I did
wrong," said Vanessa James, whose actions prompted a young pediatrician to
call ACS.
The doctor feared James was
"doctor shopping" and suffered from Munchausen
syndrome by proxy - a disorder in which someone becomes convinced a loved one
is sick or even makes them ill to get treatment or attention - or some other
mental illness that endangered Amber.
After tests at the
The couple told the Daily News they
had been upset by a six-hour wait in the clinic that day, and said other
doctors refused to get to the bottom of Amber's illness because she was
uninsured.
"If I knew this would happen,
I never would've taken my daughter to the doctor," Vanessa James said
between sobs.
"Vanessa was just being overconcerned," said Marvin James. In checkups that
followed the seizures, "she never got a real answer from the
doctors."
When ACS caseworkers visited the
family's Rockaway home, the mother showed a suitcase full of Amber's medical
records and said, "It's all a conspiracy; they are all out to get
me," the report stated. James denied she said that.
On Aug. 24, Amber was ordered into
foster care. Her parents are allowed two weekly visits.
ACS spokeswoman Sheila Stainback said the agency cannot comment on the case
because of confidentiality rules.
But advocates questioned the
agency's judgment.
"The trauma to this child is
enormous," said Richard Wexler, a proponent of children's welfare reform
who advocates for mediation, not removal, in most cases.
He said the city Department of
Investigation issued a scathing report of ACS in early August.
"This sounds like a classic
case of defensive social work," Wexler said.
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