From Harrington v. UPMC, decided Friday by Judge W. Scott Hardy (W.D. Pa.):
Plaintiffs Cherell Harrington and Deserae Cook filed a Complaint in Civil Action in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, on behalf of themselves and two putative classes, alleging various claims against the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center ("UPMC") and Allegheny County via its Office of Children, Youth and Families ("AC-CYF") arising out of UPMC's purported disclosure of their confidential medical information to AC-CYF for the purpose of targeting them with highly intrusive, humiliating and coercive child abuse investigations starting before taking their newborn babies home from UPMC's hospitals shortly after childbirth….
At this stage of the case, the factual allegations set forth in the Amended Complaint must be taken as true and viewed in the light most favorable to Plaintiffs. These allegations are recounted as follows….
Harrington is the mother of three children and until the birth of her third child had never been accused of abusing or mistreating her children in any way. She was admitted to UPMC's Magee Women's Hospital … on November 29, 2017, and gave birth to her third child, a son, who was born healthy via caesarean section the same day.
Upon her admission to the hospital, Magee employees collected Harrington's urine and tested it for drugs without her knowledge, consent, or any medical reason. The urine sample taken from Harrington came back "unconfirmed positive" for marijuana, further stating, in part, that "[t]he results are to be used only for medical purposes. Unconfirmed screening results must not be used for non-medical purposes (e.g., employment testing, legal testing)," and "the tests…are not definitive. Until definitive testing confirms any result, the result should be regarded as provisional and uncertain." Magee personnel likewise administered a drug test to Harrington's newborn son without Harrington's knowledge or consent. The newborn's test results were negative for all illicit drugs.
