Idaho Parents Take Boise Hospital to Court Over Newborn's Forced Spinal Tap

June 14, 2010— -- An Idaho couple's lawsuit pitting them against a Boise hospital that ordered spinal tap on their newborn against their wishes could lead to a revised look at parents' federal right to govern their child's medical care.

Eric and Corissa Mueller have waited six years to get their say in court and allege that their constitutional rights as parents were violated simply because they preferred not to let a doctor stick a needle in their 5-week-old daughter's spine without more information.

But in Idaho, as in many other states, the state can seize a child in a hospital setting if authorities believe the child is being neglected or abused. In the Mueller's case, child protection services was called on a medical neglect accusation when Corissa Mueller declined the spinal tap on baby Taige against their doctor's recommendation.

"She thought she had an understanding with the doctor. That's the particularly frustrating thing," said Terrence Pell, president of the Center for Individual Rights, which has represented the Muellers in their lengthy court battle. "The next thing she knows there's two policemen holding her on each arm."

If the Muellers win their case, now in the early days of what is expected to be a 4-week trial, it could force states to develop more stringent standards for seizing a child in a hospital setting.

"This has to do not with the reporting of abuse and not the grounds for possible abuse," Pell said. "It just has to do with what the state has to do before it assumes custody."

The spinal tap was recommended to test for meningitis by Dr. Richard MacDonald after 5-week-old Taige had been rushed to St. Luke's Regional Medical Center in 2002 with a fever of 100.8.

After agreeing to a battery of tests and treatments, including fluids, x-rays and blood work, Corissa Mueller declined the spinal tap, according to the original court complaint, preferring to wait until the initial test results came back before consenting to a procedure that carries a series of health risks. MacDonald had told her, court documents say, that there was only a 5 percent chance Taige had meningitis based on her symptoms.

"She thought that it would be painful for the child and along with the lumbar puncture they have to give steroids to reduce brain swelling," Pell said. "She just thought that was possibly not necessary."

When the baby's fever eventually dropped a short time later and she appeared to be improving, Corissa Mueller began asking about taking her home, according to court documents.

But the hospital, the Mueller's allege, had immediately contacted child protection services, alleging neglect. As two police officers detained Mueller at the hospital, CPS ordered the spinal tap for baby Taige. It came back negative.

MacDonald's attorney, Richard Hall, declined to comment on the specifics of the case or the trial, but said that his client "was doing what he could do in the best interest of Taige Mueller."