Rembis Fam: 11 kids, CPS, antivax, homeschool, CPS

[1CrazyMama]

I have a kiddo with seizures. Her post seizure plan is to rest and return to class or go home. That is it. If the seizure lasts 5 minutes or more we/school call 911, but otherwise there really is nothing to be done. Also, if this was the child's first seizure, even should go to the ER and he would not have had a post seizure plan to be followed. 

I find these people to be a lot like the Nauglers. They want the attention, the money and the right wing evangelicals to force the county into returning the children while doing the absolute bare minimum work. 

The whole thing makes me beyond angry.

[Terrie]

 So it turns out there's a recording on the mom's FB page of her discussion with the case worker about the son's seizure. The neurologist had said that the son's seizures should be recorded, which did not happen because the seizure was quick enough that it was basically over before anyone realized what was happening. (Apparently, it consisted of falling out of his chair and then walking around the room).  When they realized what had happened, they had him taken to the hospital. While I have sympathy for the mom's concerns and would say they are probably legitimate, she gets gets up in arms and sees malice and incompatance where there is none. She jumps straight to "If they can't get every and any seziure recorded, they can't provide adequate care." What? Does she expect them to follow a 16 year old boy into the bathroom?
 

I'm glad to discover that their medical neglect of their kids does not extend to nonsense treatements. As I said, the mom has every right to be concerned when her kid has a seizure, and having to leave his care in other people's hands must suck. But raining down condemnation on people who are doing their best to address your concerns and questions doesn't help your kid and makes you look bad.

[Lurky]

@Terrie That's pretty terrifying - the complete lack of "consult your doctor"!!

[Burpies]

I work with adults who have IDD, so almost every pt I work with had a seizure disorder. A person having a seizure who has a seizure disorder is not a medical emergency unless the seizure, or group of seizures, falls under a specific parameter laid out by the pcp or neurologist. Typically, most pts I work with get a rescue medication after a certain amount of minutes of sustained seizure activity, or a certain amount of seizures in a certain time. Then, if they have more seizure activity, some pts can have a repeat of their rescue med, some need to go to the ER. It's really tailored to the specific individual and their typical seizure activity.

That being said, if the young man in question has an established seizure disorder, and it seems like he does, the teachers should be appraised of what his specific needs are, what his seizures typically look like, what his postictal behavior is, and what the plan is for both during seizure activity, after seizure activity, and when this ventures into the range of medical emergency. It sounds like he had a very quick seizure and they prob didn't need to send him to be evaluated, but maybe they panicked, and as my nursing instructor said 'Better red than dead', and the mother should be grateful they did anything at all. And really, documenting the seizure can be done at any time.

[apandaaries]

Am I the only one who is wondering if the boy has had minor seizures throughout his life but they're only being noticed now?  There's often some kind of history.  It wouldn't surprise me at all if he had been having minor seizures in that chaotic household and no one really paid attention (parents) or knew what to do (other kids, perhaps). 

[JMarie]

I'm confused.  I went to the Rembis' FB page and saw the pic of Alex writing "I wanna go back to my real home."  The person holding the marker is wearing a pink shirt and has a pink satin bow around their ponytail, yet Mrs. Rembis uses "he" to refer to Alex.  Is Alex transgender?

[Mercer]

6 hours ago, Terrie said:

 So it turns out there's a recording on the mom's FB page of her discussion with the case worker about the son's seizure. The neurologist had said that the son's seizures should be recorded, which did not happen because the seizure was quick enough that it was basically over before anyone realized what was happening. (Apparently, it consisted of falling out of his chair and then walking around the room).  When they realized what had happened, they had him taken to the hospital.

Wait, I'm confused.

If the seizure wasn't recorded, how did the case worker or Mom know about it? Did the school just not put the information on the right piece of paper? If that's all it was, that seems easily remedied and hardly something to get up in arms over.

[Granwych]

9 hours ago, Terrie said:

 So it turns out there's a recording on the mom's FB page of her discussion with the case worker about the son's seizure. The neurologist had said that the son's seizures should be recorded, which did not happen because the seizure was quick enough that it was basically over before anyone realized what was happening. (Apparently, it consisted of falling out of his chair and then walking around the room).  When they realized what had happened, they had him taken to the hospital. While I have sympathy for the mom's concerns and would say they are probably legitimate, she gets gets up in arms and sees malice and incompatance where there is none. She jumps straight to "If they can't get every and any seziure recorded, they can't provide adequate care." What? Does she expect them to follow a 16 year old boy into the bathroom?
 

I'm glad to discover that their medical neglect of their kids does not extend to nonsense treatements. As I said, the mom has every right to be concerned when her kid has a seizure, and having to leave his care in other people's hands must suck. But raining down condemnation on people who are doing their best to address your concerns and questions doesn't help your kid and makes you look bad.

During my 20+ years as a nurse for developmentally and most often physically disabled people, I would say that a good 7 out of 10 sets of parents would bitch about anything/everything that staff did for their kids.  Staff would follow doctors' orders and protocols as written by the team of medical, psychological, physical and occupational therapies, and still get grief from families. 

[Terrie]

8 hours ago, Mercer said:

Wait, I'm confused.

If the seizure wasn't recorded, how did the case worker or Mom know about it? Did the school just not put the information on the right piece of paper? If that's all it was, that seems easily remedied and hardly something to get up in arms over.

Recorded as in filmed. I'm still confused as to how failure to do so has the potential to cause "serious" issues with a seizure that has already happened. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with aftercare like the family implied, and everything to do with simply providing the neurologist with accurate information.

[Mercer]

14 hours ago, Terrie said:

Recorded as in filmed. I'm still confused as to how failure to do so has the potential to cause "serious" issues with a seizure that has already happened. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with aftercare like the family implied, and everything to do with simply providing the neurologist with accurate information.

Ohhh okay. That makes more sense than how I was interpreting it. I agree, that has nothing to do with aftercare. 

I'm also fairly confident the parents misunderstood the neurologist, whether because they didn't comprehend or because they willfully twisted what the doctor said. I frankly don't believe for a minute that the neurologist actually said "Film any and every seizure, and there could be terrible consequences to the child's health if you don't." That just isn't a reasonable expectation, for a couple of reasons: 1.) caring for the patient's safety always comes first, and no sensible doctor is going to tell staff or parents to prioritize fumbling for your phone camera over actually monitoring and responding to the needs of the person having the seizure, and 2.) some seizures are over in seconds, and by the time you realize what happened, all you can do is aftercare - which is exactly what happened here, and which surely any medical doctor would realize.

I would be willing to bet money that what the neurologist actually said was something along the lines of "Try to film as many seizures as possible so I can see what his seizure activity looks like." That's a reasonable request, unlike this new bout of parental melodrama.

This definitely seems to be just another thing the parents are twisting to try to claim persecution. To me it sounds like school staff did their best.

[Terrie]

@Mercer Agreed. It's impossible to be ready 100% of the time to film a seizure. Are they supposed to follow him into the bathroom in case he has one on the toilet? Take shifts so one of them is always ready with a camera, even in the middle of the night? That's nonsense. If his condition was that precarious, he should have been in the hospital, not at home with his parents.

[mirele]

I'm actually surprised nobody else has reported this.
 

Quote

 

Rembis Sues Fox News for $10 Million in Lubbock Federal Court

William Rembis filed a lawsuit Friday afternoon against Fox News for $10 million.  The lawsuit filed in Lubbock accused Fox of damaging his and his wife’s reputation.

The Rembis family made national news in September when they accused state officials of illegally trying to take their 11 children.  A judge in Lubbock later ruled that Children’s Protective Services could retain custody of the 10 younger children.  The 11th child was old enough to refuse CPS. 

During court proceedings in Lubbock, witnesses testified that they saw the Rembis children eating out of a dumpster and wandering barefoot and unsupervised in an alley.

Days prior to the hearing, Fox News published an article about the Rembis family which was written by the Associated Press.

According to the lawsuit, Rembis emailed Fox News demanding that the article be removed.

The article itself never accused Rembis or his wife of sex crimes, however, the article appeared in category of foxnews.com labeled “sex crimes.”

“My wife and I have never been charged, let alone accused of sexual crimes of any kind,” Rembis wrote in an email to Fox News.

“This is extremely derogatory, highly inflammatory, and entirely baseless.” Rembis wrote.  “I demand an immediate, as in today, retraction of this article.”

According to the lawsuit, Fox News did not respond.  As of Friday the article remained on foxnews.com under the heading “sex crimes.”

Fox News has not yet filed its side of the story in court records. 

EverythingLubbock.com asked if Fox News would like to make a statement in response to the lawsuit.  A spokesperson cited pending litigation and declined comment. 

 

http://www.everythinglubbock.com/news/local-news/rembis-sues-fox-news-for-10-million-in-lubbock-federal-court

I don't think they have much of a case here.  I'm more thinking that they're doing this to try and scare off the press from reporting on them because they're litigious.

[Howl]

Wow.  Just file a gigantic law suit.  So much easier than going to law school.  

That said, there are two issues:

The truth of the substance of the AP article

Incorrectly filing the article under Sex Crimes 

They'll have a hard time proving the AP article is inflammatory if it can be substantiated by previous articles and information from CPS in other states. 

There are no allegations of sexual abuse, as far as I know.  The article shouldn't be filed under "Sex Crimes".  

 

[Mercer]

Quote

 

The article itself never accused Rembis or his wife of sex crimes, however, the article appeared in category of foxnews.com labeled “sex crimes.”

The irony is strong here. 

There actually is a sexual abuse allegation involved in this case... an allegation made by the parents against several medical providers.

The parents were upset that news outlets were not reporting on the allegations (probably because the allegations were not at all credible so there was a libel risk in publishing them, and the alleged victims were highly identifiable whether or not they were individually named,) so Momma Rembis began raising a stink on social media about how her children's alleged victimization was being covered up by the media.

Presumably the only reason this article was filed under "sex crimes" is that the parents themselves demanded the media should include reporting about an alleged sex crime when providing coverage of their case. 

I can't quite figure out if the parents are really that dumb or if they think they're being clever trying to work the system, but I don't think the fact that it was the family themselves who originated the allegations in question will go unnoticed if the suit goes forward.

[Howl]

@Mercer, you are exactly right!  Thank you! (Bangs head gently against hand) Duh! They claimed there was sex abuse by hospital staff wanting to do a sex abuse examination or some such, and possible sex abuse from another (unrelated) foster child.  I can't bear to go back and read their original posts. 

Wonder if anyone has pointed this out to the Rembis'?  Surely a lawyer would, but perhaps they filed the suit themselves.  

[Carm_88]

What a crock of complete and utter bullshit! This family makes me want to bang my head against the wall and cuddle my kitties a little tighter. 

[FundieFarmer]

On 10/28/2016 at 6:19 PM, amandaaries said:

Am I the only one who is wondering if the boy has had minor seizures throughout his life but they're only being noticed now?  There's often some kind of history.  It wouldn't surprise me at all if he had been having minor seizures in that chaotic household and no one really paid attention (parents) or knew what to do (other kids, perhaps). 

I've been wondering this as well, actually. Do our more experienced FJers know if something like this would typically develop around this age? 

[Childless]

It's possible.  My relative started having seizures in his 50s.  Out of the blue.  He had test after test after test done (even went to the Mayo Clinic) and no one could determine why they started.  He was diagnosed with epilepsy and put on anti-seizure meds.  That's been the regimen ever since (little more than 15 years now).

[Palimpsest]

Disclaimer: all I know about seizure disorders came from my dogs.  Hounds who are going to develop seizure disorders seem to see me coming - I've had 3 seizure doggies now.

In people, and dogs, seizures can start at any age and have a wide variety of causes.   Usually epilepsy is diagnosed only after ruling out all other probable causes and meds are prescribed as necessary.   Idiopathic epilepsy may have a strong genetic component.

Seizures vary between small focal seizures (petit mal) lasting for a few seconds that can be overlooked by observers to generalized tonic-clonic (grand mal) seizures.  A tonic-clonic seizure that lasts for more than 5 minutes and "cluster seizures," which are t-c seizures that happen in rapid succession (both status epilepticus) can be life threatening.  Close observation and logging of seizure patterns is part of diagnosis, but is also really important in managing medication properly.

So, yes, the kid could have been having small focal seizures that were overlooked, but it sounds as though the R parents knew about his seizures and that he had been dxed prior to this incident.

[seattlechic]

20 hours ago, Howl said:

@Mercer, you are exactly right!  Thank you! (Bangs head gently against hand) Duh! They claimed there was sex abuse by hospital staff wanting to do a sex abuse examination or some such, and possible sex abuse from another (unrelated) foster child.  I can't bear to go back and read their original posts. 

Wonder if anyone has pointed this out to the Rembis'?  Surely a lawyer would, but perhaps they filed the suit themselves.  

Very likely, since daddy-o is all about the Law Schoolsssss... 

[December]

1 hour ago, Childless said:

It's possible.  My relative started having seizures in his 50s.  Out of the blue.  He had test after test after test done (even went to the Mayo Clinic) and no one could determine why they started.  He was diagnosed with epilepsy and put on anti-seizure meds.  That's been the regimen ever since (little more than 15 years now).

 

 

An almost identical situation happened with someone I know, around the same age. The onset seemed very random and they never found out why, but at least they were able to treat it. 

On 10/28/2016 at 9:24 AM, QuiverFullOfTacos said:

I notice the parents made sure to mention the seizure happened at a public school.

I mean, judging by the beliefs of many families discussed here, I wouldn't put it past someone to claim that public schools cause seizures. Either way, it's really sad these kids are suffering no matter who ends up having custody of them. Hopefully, it'll turn out well for them in the long run. 

[Grimalkin]

Stress can bring seizures on with some people who have seizure disorders. I seem to know a lot of people who have seizures or kids with them. They seem to all be very different too. 

[1CrazyMama]

CrazyKiddo1 was diagnosed with seizures as an infant. They did have us video them for a week or so to help with diagnosis, but certainly not every single time. I do believe that she is confusing record, as in video with record, as in written. 

That said, kiddo was on Meds until 2 and at 9.5 started having more seizures, new ones and we are back on Meds. The teachers let me know when there are a lot happening or if things seem to be off. 

Puberty is a time where chronic seizure disorders like to make themselves known.

[Terrie]

New summary of the situation from the family's POV from MedicalKidnap. More of the same nonsense. Lots of accusations, but nothing concrete, and a lot of cluelessness about how things work. For instance, they seem to think that since CPS looked into homeschooling options and couldn't find one that met their requirements after the judge (supposedly) ordered the kids homeschooled, well, that means the kids have to be returned home, because CPS violated the orders. But, of course, the case plan ordered for the parents? A watse of time and money.

Oh, and the judge asking if the mom could read and write? Just a low handed jab by the judge. Never mind that there are parents involved with CPS who cannot read and write. My cousin, who has severe dyslexia, is one of them. And yet, by some esoteric magic, he had no problems getting his kids back. (It's called working your case plan).

[Carm_88]

7 minutes ago, Terrie said:

New summary of the situation from the family's POV from MedicalKidnap. More of the same nonsense. Lots of accusations, but nothing concrete, and a lot of cluelessness about how things work. For instance, they seem to think that since CPS looked into homeschooling options and couldn't find one that met their requirements after the judge (supposedly) ordered the kids homeschooled, well, that means the kids have to be returned home, because CPS violated the orders. But, of course, the case plan ordered for the parents? A watse of time and money.

Oh, and the judge asking if the mom could read and write? Just a low handed jab by the judge. Never mind that there are parents involved with CPS who cannot read and write. My cousin, who has severe dyslexia, is one of them. And yet, by some esoteric magic, he had no problems getting his kids back. (It's called working your case plan).

These parents make me so mad. They are so full of tooting their own horn and screaming persecution that they cannot do what is right for their children! It makes absolutely no sense to me. If you truly care and love your children, help get them home. If you think they aren't safe, then follow the orders needed and get them home. Don't scream about the system, you're just making yourself look like an idiot. Sometimes it may not work but it in this case those kids were not safe and they needed to be taken away. Now you have to prove that you are able to take care of them and that you have learned from this situation. Which you know...they haven't!