What happens to the children when a parent is admitted to the hospital but no other friends and family live nearby?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why I always carry a little card in my wallet or on my person that reads:

If I’m injured!!!

I have a child at Wonka Elementary school named Veruca Salt

Our address is 123 Maple Ln

Please call Jenny at 867-5309 and inform them I am hurt and my child is alone

I have a card in my wallet too. I also have a ICE contact in my phone who would know what to do.

[Anonymous]

There are crisis nurseries. I interned at one while I was in college and they provided full care for children ages 0-6yo whose parents were in the hospital, on drugs, victims of abuse, homeless and trying to sort out lodging, etc. We had kids there 24/7 for up to two weeks at a time. Unfortunately, we had a lot of regulars. The staff members were excellent- true angels on earth. I actually switched my major after that internship because it took such a toll on me emotionally.

[Anonymous]

Isn’t this what emergency contacts are for? I’m a single parent and I have plans for this in varying degrees of duration/urgency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When my oldest was born, I had a medical emergency (infection after the C section) and had to be re-admitted to the hospital the day after we had been discharged. They (hospital) wouldn't allow my baby to be admitted with me, so he had to stay home. It was awful, I was in the hospital for 4 days without my newborn.

My husband was active duty military at the time, so he was able to care for the baby. But being military, I knew many women who had given birth when their husbands were deployed, and they lived far away from family. I asked the hospital staff what would happen in that case? If my husband was deployed and I had no family/friends nearby, would they have allowed my baby to stay with me? They said no, in that case they would call cps and the baby would be put in foster care.

How long was this? This story confirms to me once again that our health system sucks.

[Anonymous]

This has crossed my mind when I was traveling in Europe with my toddler (I am a single parent).

I think they would call the embassy maybe? But then again, I think your passport has an emergency contact number.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Someone from our state who is an elected office holder at the national level knew a young woman who was a single parent, friend of their son's. She was beaten to death by a boyfriend. They had babysat the child (age 3 at the time) and took him in, then they managed to get a court order to keep him as a foster child and eventually adopt. They definitely had some advantages in the legal system though.

My aunt used to watch the child of a wealthy (male) single parent. When he died unexpectedly, she took the girl in.

It was a great source of comfort and continuity to the now orphaned child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When my oldest was born, I had a medical emergency (infection after the C section) and had to be re-admitted to the hospital the day after we had been discharged. They (hospital) wouldn't allow my baby to be admitted with me, so he had to stay home. It was awful, I was in the hospital for 4 days without my newborn.

My husband was active duty military at the time, so he was able to care for the baby. But being military, I knew many women who had given birth when their husbands were deployed, and they lived far away from family. I asked the hospital staff what would happen in that case? If my husband was deployed and I had no family/friends nearby, would they have allowed my baby to stay with me? They said no, in that case they would call cps and the baby would be put in foster care.

They were right.

You needed to make a back up plan. They cannot be juggling a newborn when they are caring for someone who is so sick as to need hospitalization.

Plus, who wants to expose a newborn to an infection?

Military parents are often (in effect) single parents. They need to plan accordingly. I am not saying it is easy, since they relocated every few years. But it should be a priority. This is not a health care system responsibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thank you all for helping me run over this scenario.

I have had people in my life experience catastrophic illness while being extremely healthy such as brain aneurysm driving home from work. Watching them heal thru therapies has really urged me to ensure I have a good plan as my family members who would be called are not financially fit by DCUM standards and would not be able to unexpectedly fly in if I am unable to access my account to provide those fundings.

I would worry too - is there any health implication or difficulty on returning a child to the parent if CPS temporarily places them in a foster home? Worries also as a minority mother. There are some quite awful scenarios that are well documented with CPS.

With the neighbor, of course things could be terrible as well if the person is an unknown abuser of some sort.

Thank you all though for your help. I come from an older family so thank you PP who raised age as a factor.

I’ll look more into those classmate schoolmate family possibilities.

When a kid goes into emergency care, typically there has to be a hearing within 72 to 96 hours (depending on day of the week and the state) to formalize the emergency order, then it is reviewed (should be, depends on how stacked up the particular system in) within a few weeks, during which time CPS has to make efforts to locate relatives, etc. It generally takes a few months or more for this to turn into a longer term foster care order. And actually a review of custody can usually be requested at any time, at least technically. So just going into emergency care doesn't necessarily mean the kid is pulled into a foster care black hole, BUT during that time a lot of investigation is done by people who don't know the family or relatives personally, issues that people can usually keep under wraps may surface in ways you don't expect or misinterpreted, so there's definitely chances things can really go south even for affluent middle class families.

New poster. It is also worth noting that a situation where the kids were placed into care because of a parent's medical event would be treated meaningfully differently by CPS than a situation where the kids were placed into care because of abuse allegations against the parent. In the latter situation, you would need to establish that you were a safe parent who had addressed whatever issues contributed to the abusive incident as well as whatever other CPS criteria need to be met in your jurisdiction. In the medical event situation, CPS would recognize that they were stepping in to provide bridge care for a family in crisis, determine the easiest way to make it happen, and then make it happen. Most people in the situation would be assumed to be credible rather than seen with suspicion.

I have a friend who had a medical event as a single parent in a community with very limited support. She was taken to the hospital when her son was in school. He returned from school to a locked house and no mom. He went to a neighbor's house to call his mom, which was successful eventually (she was admitted but stable at that point). Mom gave permission to the neighbor to babysit him overnight, which satisfied the hospital in the moment. By the next day, she was stable and her mom was able to fly in from out of town because the neighbor was not a long term solution. My friend was in the hospital for 3 days and ended up moving back to her hometown because she recognized that she just did not have the support she needed for an emergency. I dunno if I would've done that, but aftet her situation, I definitely worked to identify an emergency plan and talked about it with my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This has crossed my mind when I was traveling in Europe with my toddler (I am a single parent).

I think they would call the embassy maybe? But then again, I think your passport has an emergency contact number.

What would happen if a parent was alone with child and had a medical emergency overseas? Im realizing that I am the only family member with a passport.I’ve considered what would happen if I were in another state. I once fell and shattered my leg but had a copartner on that travel who drove us home. My parents are in their 70s and never left the county nor are they physically able to now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When my oldest was born, I had a medical emergency (infection after the C section) and had to be re-admitted to the hospital the day after we had been discharged. They (hospital) wouldn't allow my baby to be admitted with me, so he had to stay home. It was awful, I was in the hospital for 4 days without my newborn.

My husband was active duty military at the time, so he was able to care for the baby. But being military, I knew many women who had given birth when their husbands were deployed, and they lived far away from family. I asked the hospital staff what would happen in that case? If my husband was deployed and I had no family/friends nearby, would they have allowed my baby to stay with me? They said no, in that case they would call cps and the baby would be put in foster care.

How long was this? This story confirms to me once again that our health system sucks.

As an RN, I wouldn't be comfortable with the patient having full responsibility of a baby. What would happen if the patient deteriorated? Is the staff supposed to care for the baby? Or if the patient is too sick to care for the newborn and drops the baby because she's week? Our policy is a minor can stay, but there has to be an adult other than the patient staying as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When my oldest was born, I had a medical emergency (infection after the C section) and had to be re-admitted to the hospital the day after we had been discharged. They (hospital) wouldn't allow my baby to be admitted with me, so he had to stay home. It was awful, I was in the hospital for 4 days without my newborn.

My husband was active duty military at the time, so he was able to care for the baby. But being military, I knew many women who had given birth when their husbands were deployed, and they lived far away from family. I asked the hospital staff what would happen in that case? If my husband was deployed and I had no family/friends nearby, would they have allowed my baby to stay with me? They said no, in that case they would call cps and the baby would be put in foster care.

How long was this? This story confirms to me once again that our health system sucks.

As an RN, I wouldn't be comfortable with the patient having full responsibility of a baby. What would happen if the patient deteriorated? Is the staff supposed to care for the baby? Or if the patient is too sick to care for the newborn and drops the baby because she's week? Our policy is a minor can stay, but there has to be an adult other than the patient staying as well.

Yikes sorry for spelling errors. Worked a double shift last night and my brain isn't quite functioning!

[Anonymous]

It depends on the area you live in. Usually if it's a few hours till someone can come, a social worker, hospital staff or someone else will watch the child. If not, the child goes into foster care - it may be a group home or foster home.

[Anonymous]

My friend does emergency foster care.

They stay with her until family can be found/contacted or the parent is in a position to take the children back.