In the Interest of: C.P., Appeal of: A.W.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 18, 2022
Docket1033 WDA 2021
StatusUnpublished

This text of In the Interest of: C.P., Appeal of: A.W. (In the Interest of: C.P., Appeal of: A.W.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In the Interest of: C.P., Appeal of: A.W., (Pa. Ct. App. 2022).

Opinion

J-S38034-21

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

IN THE INTEREST OF: C.P., A MINOR : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA : APPEAL OF: A.W., MOTHER : : : : : : No. 1033 WDA 2021

Appeal from the Order Entered August 3, 2021 In the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County Orphans' Court at No(s): CP-02-AP-0000179-2020

BEFORE: BENDER, P.J.E., DUBOW, J., and COLINS, J.*

MEMORANDUM BY COLINS, J.: FILED: FEBRUARY 18, 2022

A.W. (“Mother”) appeals from the August 3, 2021 Order of the Court of

Common Pleas of Allegheny County Orphans’ Court (trial court) terminating

her parental rights to C.P. (“Child”).1 We affirm.

We glean the following relevant facts and procedural history from the

trial court’s opinion (“TCO”) and the certified record. In May 2019, the

Allegheny County Office of Children, Youth, and Families (“OCYF”) filed a

dependency petition for Child after he was removed from his parents’ care

pursuant to an Emergency Protective Order. Child was admitted to UPMC

Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh on May 18, 2019, after police responded to ____________________________________________

* Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court.

1The trial court also terminated the parental rights of F.P. (“Father”) and of any unknown father of Child (Child’s birth certificate did not list a father). Father was determined to be Child’s biological father by entry of a court order on April 22, 2019. Father did not file an appeal. J-S38034-21

Mother’s home to escort her and Child to the emergency room at UPMC

Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. At the hospital, Child underwent a standard

nonaccidental trauma workup due to a concern for potential abuse or neglect,

and was diagnosed with poor weight gain, failure to thrive and, following an

MRI, a retropharyngeal abscess in his throat. UPMC Children’s Hospital of

Pittsburgh CAC Inpatient Consult. Legal custody of Child was transferred to

OCYF at a May 24, 2019 shelter hearing, with permission to place Child into

foster care upon his discharge from the hospital; parents were granted

supervised visits with Child. Following an adjudicatory hearing, Child was

found Dependent on August 13, 2019 and ordered to remain in his foster care

placement. Permanency hearings were held on November 13, 2019, May 12,

2020, August 19, 2020, and February 3, 2021, each of which resulted in an

order for Child to remain in foster care. A termination petition was filed on

November 24, 2020. Termination proceedings were held on May 7, May 28,

and July 29 of 2021.

[Child] was born on February 7th, 2019. After his birth [Child] was admitted to the NICU to be withdrawn from Subutex, a substance that Mother had been prescribed during pregnancy. It was noted that he was a healthy weight at the time of his birth. [Child] was seen at Community Pediatrics in Brentwood, Pennsylvania for routine follow-up appointments after his birth. During these routine appointments, the pediatricians became concerned about [Child]’s poor weight gain. The medical records, as reported by pediatrician, Dr. Levin, noted that [Child] was only in the third percentile for his weight as compared to other children his age. As a result, weight checks were scheduled every few days so that the office could monitor [Child]’s growth. At an appointment on May 14, 2019, [Child]’s weight had dropped to the first percentile.

-2- J-S38034-21

The pediatrician at that appointment requested that [Child] return to the office for another weight check a few days later.

On May 17th, 2019, Mother appeared with [Child] for a weight check, and he was seen by Dr. Kenneth Levin. [Child] weighed 9 pounds and 7 ounces at the time of the check which was well below the expected weight of 12 pounds for a child his age. Dr. Levin advised Mother to take [Child] to the Emergency Department at Children’s Hospital based on the doctor’s recent observations of recent weight loss and the overall appearance of [Child] at the appointment. Later in the evening, Dr. Levin contacted Children’s Hospital to inquire if [Child] had been examined by emergency room physicians. The hospital advised him that [Child] had not been to the emergency room. Dr. Levin reported that he became concerned for [Child]’s welfare based upon his prior experiences with the parents and their lack of follow through at previous appointments. The doctor testified that he drove to the address listed for the family to physically check on [Child]. No one answered the door, and the doctor went home. The next morning, Dr. Levin called Children’s Hospital to inquire if [Child] had been admitted to the Emergency Department overnight. Children’s Hospital reported that [Child] had not been seen overnight and Dr. Levin called 911 to conduct a welfare check on [Child]. Dr. Levin reported that he had never driven to a patient’s home or contacted 911 to conduct a welfare check in his entire career. He took such drastic action because he knew that the parents had another child who died unexpectedly at age three months. He reported that this child also had a history of poor weigh[t] gain. Mother and [Child] were eventually located by police the next morning. Mother agreed to travel with [Child] by ambulance to Children’s Hospital Emergency Department.

T.C.O. at 3-4 (citations omitted).

Myia Weisend (Weisend), a caseworker at OCYF testified that the

ChildLine report filed while Child was hospitalized indicated he was

underweight and that Mother and her family members had not been

cooperative in locating Child prior to his admission to Children’s Hospital; she

stated that Child was transferred to pediatric intensive care on the day

-3- J-S38034-21

following his admission and remained there for twelve days, after which he

was transferred to the Children’s Home for stability and rehabilitation. N.T.,

May 7, 2021, at 28. Dr. Maria Antonucci, who performed a child advocacy

consult on May 20, 2019, testified at the May 28, 2021 hearing that during an

MRI performed following admission, a retropharyngeal abscess was found that

required surgical drainage. N.T., May 28, 2021 at 91. Dr. Antonucci described

this abscess as a bacterial infection usually preceded by a cold and opined that

it probably developed at some point in time in the 24-48 hours before Child

developed a temperature, on May 17, 2021. Id. at 97. As part of her consult,

she interviewed Dr. Levin, who reported to her that upon his examination on

the evening prior to admission to the hospital, he found Child to be breathing

rapidly and to be very thin in appearance, having lost five pounds since the

prior weight check. Id. at 93, 98. Dr. Antonucci further testified that Child

had an extensive workup for his failure to thrive diagnosis, and a

predisposition for aspiration was found, with some airway intervention. Id.

at 100, 101.

The trial court iterated the conditions that caused Child to come under

care, and for which Child will continue to require attention:

[Child] has several medical issues including his short stature, a failure to thrive diagnosis, dysphagia, and a speech delay. He is being monitored by genetics, endocrinology, gastroenterology, and the Feeding and Swallowing Center at Children’s Hospital. [Child] works with a speech therapist, a nutritionist and should be working with an occupational therapist.

-4- J-S38034-21

T.C.O. at 12.

Foster mother, who is a registered nurse, testified regarding Child’s

ongoing medical needs:

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