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Last updated on Sunday, February 11, 2018
(HUNTINGBURG) - A Huntingburg couple who claims their daughter was “medically kidnapped” is now suing two Child Protective Services workers.
In the lawsuit filed last week, Lelah and Jade Jerger claim the Indiana Department of Child Services workers ordered their daughter's blood be drawn to make sure Keppra, a medicine for seizures, was in her system.
Jaelah was diagnosed with epilepsy in July 2017 when she was about a year and a half old. Her parents say at the time, she was having as many as 100 seizures a day. Those seizures only got worse when they gave her the drug Keppra. However, the Jerger's say when they started giving Jaelah Charlotte's Web, a form of CBD oil, her seizures reduced to just one or two a day.
The allegations of abuse came against the Jerger after they decided to give their daughter CBD oil instead of pharmaceutical medication prescribed by a doctor.
The Jergers claim the non-consensual blood draw of their nearly 2-year-old daughter represents a warrant-less search and seizure. Because of Keppra's side effects, the Jergers preferred to treat their daughter with CBD oil.
Lelah says there haven't been enough studies and trials to show whether the prescribed epilepsy medication is safe enough for a toddler. CBD oil is legal for people with epilepsy but, the Jerger's say for their two-year-old daughter Jaelah to qualify it means she would have to be on two or three pharmaceutical drugs for 3 months at a time and prove they aren't working.
They say they are not willing to put their daughter through that for 9 months just to see if other drugs work when they're already found CBD oil does treat Jaelah's epilepsy with no side effects.
Lelah says DCS told them they had to keep Jaelah on the medication Keppra and take her for weekly blood draws to prove she was still on the drug. In the lawsuit filed Monday, the Jergers claim the blood draws were a "non-consensual search and seizure without a warrant" and violated their Fourth Amendment right.
The Jergers are being represented by the ACLU and are demanding a jury trial.
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