Lawsuit: Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services

“A military couple is suing the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, accusing the agency of illegally hiding the serious medical and mental health issues of a 6-year-old boy they adopted six years ago.

The couple adopted the boy in 2009 while they were stationed at Offutt Air Force Base south of Omaha, the Lincoln Journal Star reported (http://bit.ly/1GAgGEc ) Saturday.

Their attorney, Sally Rasmussen of Lincoln, said Nebraska HHS told the couple only that the boy “was a handful,” might have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and that his biological mother have consumed alcohol while she was pregnant with him.

But the couple’s lawsuit says they later learned the department was aware — and didn’t tell them — that the boy had been diagnosed at age 2 with severe attachment disorder and later with bipolar disorder. Nor did agency officials tell the couple that the boy had been removed from foster homes for inappropriate sexual contact involving other children and from another foster home due to abuse by a foster father.

“When the (couple) indicated a willingness to adopt an older child, it appears the department saw this as an opportunity to place a child with high-level needs with good-hearted, but unsuspecting, parents,” Rasmussen said.

The family is using only its initials in the lawsuit to protect the identity of the boy, now 12.

The department violated state law that requires it to provide the medical records of a child it places for adoption to the adoptive parents, the lawsuit alleges.

Nebraska HHS spokesman Russ Reno told the Journal Star that the department doesn’t comment on lawsuits and referred questions to the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, which will represent it in the lawsuit.

A spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s Office declined to comment to the newspaper.

The couple is seeking more than $3.5 million from the state, plus $200,000 for their costs so far for mental health, hospitalization and other costs.

The couple is now stationed at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas with their four other children, while their adopted son lives in a residential group home tailored to treat his disorders. The home costs nearly $4,000 a month.”

 

Couple sues Nebraska agency over adoption of troubled boy[News and  Observer 3/28/15 by Associated Press]

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