The family of a child with a rare illness is suing a children’s hospital that secretly recorded them in a failed attempt to prove abuse.
Madison Meyer, 20, grew up with a mysterious illness that was first diagnosed as a connective tissue disorder, but when treatment failed and her health continued to decline, her parents, Bill Meyer and Dana Gascay, took her to numerous doctors across the country searching for answers, KPBS reported. The family is now suing Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, California, after staff allegedly filmed the family to prove Meyer’s condition wasn’t real.
Meyer’s illness resulted in numerous broken bones, dislocated joints, and chronic pain. She had multiple surgeries to correct these issues, but her family didn’t know what was causing them.
“To say we were concerned is an understatement,” Gascay said. “Obviously, as a parent, you hate standing by and seeing your child suffer,” Gascay told KPBS.
In 2019, Meyer’s doctors transferred her to Rady Children’s Hospital so she could receive care around the clock. Her parents were by her side the entire time, cleaning and bathing her and taking turns sleeping on a bed they cobbled together in Meyer’s hospital room.
The family is suing the hospital, saying that during that time – and unbeknownst to them – staffers secretly recorded the family 24/7, searching for signs of abuse. In court documents reviewed by KPBS, hospital employees admit to the surveillance.
Meyer’s family says in their lawsuit that the hospital didn’t have a search warrant for the surveillance and didn’t catch any signs of abuse. The family is suing the hospital, San Diego County, and individual employees, arguing the family’s privacy rights were violated.
“This was just beyond a horrific violation,” Gascay told KPBS. “You feel violated and dirty, because somebody’s there watching everything that you do.”
The hospital suspected that one or both of Meyer’s parents suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, in which a parent or guardian fakes or exaggerates illnesses and injuries in their child to receive attention from medical professionals.
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A San Diego County Superior Court commissioner reportedly said that the surveillance against the Meyer family was “unbelievable” and an “insensitive invasion of privacy,” according to the lawsuit.
The hospital did not comment on the specifics of the case.
“At Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego, our top priority is providing the highest level of care to our patients and families,” the hospital said in a statement to the outlet. “The hospital does not comment generally on pending litigation and cannot comment specifically on this case due to patient privacy protections under federal and state law.”
San Diego County spokesman Michael Workman told KPBS that “social workers and medical professionals are required by law to report and investigate suspected child abuse.” He added that “no county employees were involved in the decision to surveil plaintiffs’ daughter’s hospital room.”
Dr. Shalon Nienow, Rady’s division director of child abuse pediatrics, said that she spoke to the county’s main child abuse investigator throughout the investigation into the alleged abuse.