The night before Susan Horton gave birth to her daughter, she had already gone into early labor and she wanted something quick and simple for dinner.
She feasted on a frozen pizza and an “everything” salad kit from Costco from the fridge. She remembers how delicious the salad was, and how the poppy seeds crunched in her mouth.
The next day, the 39-year-old gave birth at a Kaiser Permanente hospital in Santa Rosa. But when a nurse came to her room, instead of bringing her healthy newborn, Halle, she told Horton that she tested positive for opiates in her urine and could not take her baby home.
Horton was stunned. “Are you sure it’s my urine?” she recalled asking the nurse. She had no clue how it could be positive for anything. It wasn’t until later that Horton and her family began to suspect that the poppy seeds from the salad were the likely reason for the positive drug test, which prompted a traumatic battle with authorities to prove Horton was a fit mother and not a drug user.
The hospital launched an investigation over the incident.
“It was devastating to our family,” Horton said.
The case, which took place in 2022, was recently reported by Reveal News and the Marshall Project as one of several examples of parents who were turned over to child protective services authorities and lost custody of their children because of inaccurate drug tests.
The incident began during the pandemic when Horton opted to skip some prenatal appointments because she lived with high-risk people and she didn’t want to risk getting them sick with COVID-19. When she arrived at the Kaiser hospital to give birth, the staff questioned her about missing the prenatal appointments and asked if she would be willing to provide a urine sample, which she did. She doesn’t recall them asking if they could test the urine for drugs.
Once the test came back, hospital staff told Horton that they would have to file a report with child protection services. Horton asked if she could take another urine test but was told a second test wouldn’t negate the first one she took.
Eventually, Horton found out that her urine came back positive for codeine — an opioid pain reliever typically used in cough medicine. Even though Horton hadn’t taken cough medicine, health officials say consuming poppy seed products can lead to positive results for morphine, codeine or both due to the sensitivity of the drug tests. Horton remembered there were a lot of poppy seeds in the Costco salad that she had consumed the night before giving birth.
Later that day, a child protective services employee came to the hospital to speak with Horton and her husband. Horton recalled being asked about her parenting and her other children. The worker also wanted Horton to sign a written arrangement between CPS and guardians on how dangerous situations will be addressed. Horton refused.
“I chose not to sign it because it would feel like I was admitting guilt,” she told The Times. “I wasn’t guilty and didn’t do anything wrong.”
Horton was later given paperwork stating that Halle wasn’t safe in the custody of her and her husband and was being taken away. Halle also had to stay at Kaiser for an additional five days to be monitored for drug withdrawal symptoms. Horton opted to stay with her.
Horton’s mother-in-law was given temporary custody of Halle and the family left the hospital with a court date scheduled for two days later. Because her mother-in-law lived about five minutes away from her in Santa Rosa, Horton said she was able to visit and care for the newborn.
In court, Horton and her husband were asked if they would take another drug test, which showed negative results. A CPS worker also came to their home and observed their children. During the second court hearing, the judge dismissed the case and Horton’s baby was returned to her custody, about two weeks after she had given birth.
“All I wanted to do was to be home with my husband and my kids,” Horton said.
Horton said she was upset at how Kaiser had handled the situation and that her family is planning to switch their insurance. Her husband also filed a complaint with Kaiser about the ordeal; the hospital said it would investigate the incident but Horton hasn’t heard back on the results.
“I was treated like I was guilty instead of being innocent until proven guilty so it really traumatized us,” she added.