Opinion ID: 1908241
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The effects on the daughter of the mother's delusions.

Text: The evidence at the fact-finding hearing revealed that the mother's obsession with imaginary toxic fumes had significant consequences for her daughter. This was of particular concern because, according to her pediatrician, E.H. was suffering from serious developmental delays, and she was substantially behind other children of her age in her understanding, communication, and language skills. On several evenings during 1994, the mother, who lived in a sixth floor apartment, brought E.H. on to the balcony in order to escape the fumes. Mother and daughter then spent the night on the balcony. At the time, E.H. was approximately seven months old. This situation troubled Ms. Nguyen, who apprehended that the child might move and slip between the balcony's bars. The mother insisted that E.H. was too young to wander off, but she assured Ms. Nguyen that she would not have her daughter sleep on the balcony again. The mother also testified that it was hard to have a daily routine with the things that were going on in the apartment. [9] She stated that her daughter missed out a lot of her life because she was unconscious a lot of times. According to the mother, [t]here was no consistency. Sometimes we'd get up and only be up for like a couple of hours or so before something would come in and put her in a sleep state.... Sometimes something was in her[e] keeping us up [at night]. She was running around like it was daytime and would be playing with the toys ... like it was daytime. By the mother's own admission, E.H.'s life was unpredictable and somewhat chaotic. As a result, E.H. was usually asleep when the DHS social worker visited the apartment during the daytime, and Ms. Nguyen testified that the child was generally unable to respond to repeated attempts to engage her. Dr. Weissman, E.H.'s pediatrician, testified that when E.H. was brought into his office, she would be asleep in a strolleran unusual circumstance for a child of her age. Other aspects of life in the mother's household were dominated by the omnipresent but imaginary fumes. Ms. Nguyen testified that when she came to the mother's apartment, the perishable food was in the refrigerator, but the remainder of the food and the dishes were kept in the living room in order to protect them from the fumes. The windows were kept open, regardless of the temperature. G.H. also took her daughter to the emergency room on several occasions to have her tested for fumes.