This story was posted on Facebook on Wednesday by lawyer Dalia Jasevičienė, who described the situation as: “how child rights are taken away from a family with a deceased child.”
Decision – after the child’s death
The lawyer representing the deceased child’s parents told 15min what exactly happened.
“The mother came to Kaunas clinics with the sick child, whose social worker, without having the child’s diagnosis and seeing only the symptoms, reported alleged inappropriate behavior of the mother to the Child Rights Protection and Adoption Service. Upon receiving the report, the service checked with Kaunas clinics about what and how they see the situation, and without a diagnosis, not knowing that a congenital syndrome had already been diagnosed, made the decision to take the child, but the decision was made two days after the child’s death,” said D. Jasevičienė.
She also clarified that the decision was made to take all 7 children from the family, but this decision has not yet been confirmed by the court.
“There is no court permission. Now the service must apply to the court within three days with a request for permission to take the children,” the lawyer’s assistant insisted.
She claimed that “this is not the first time I have encountered the incompetence of the Kaunas clinics social worker and a critical, unfounded attitude especially towards mothers with many children and her unfounded complaints to the Child Rights Protection and Adoption Service exceeding her own competence.”
According to the lawyer, child rights defenders should find out for themselves whether the child decided to be taken from the family is alive: “They must make sure that the child is alive, the child was recently in intensive care.”
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15min also contacted the State Child Rights Protection and Adoption Service. As soon as we receive a comment, we will update the text.
“The medical team made every possible effort”
Kaunas clinics representative Ieva Jankauskienė confirmed to 15min that the girl did not survive, although “the medical team made every possible effort to save the girl’s life.”
At the same time, the healthcare institution’s representative emphasized that medical staff must report to child rights defenders about possible signs of child rights “violations or neglect.”
According to I. Jankauskienė, further evaluation of the case is now in the hands of the State Child Rights Protection and Adoption Service specialists. At the same time, the representative revealed that the clinic’s service was not informed about the child’s death.
“This was also done in this case, when suspicions of possible child neglect arose. Further assessment of the circumstances and decision-making is the competence of the service. The service was not informed about the child’s death by Kaunas clinics,” said the Kaunas clinics press representative, adding that an internal investigation was not initiated.
She also conveyed Kaunas clinics’ condolences to the family: “We sincerely sympathize with the girl’s relatives in this difficult hour – the loss of a child is the greatest tragedy that can happen to a family.”
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