A legislative task force plans to look into why
DHS kept a 5-year-old boy away from his parents after his baby brother died, but did not act to remove the children of the baby's sitter.
Sam Hedger, spent more than two months away from his parents, Zane and
Leah Hedger.
Sam's aunt,
Tammy Padgett, said being separated from his parents was traumatic from the start. She recalled Sam's first visit with his parents at a DHS office after he was taken from his home.
The DHS worker was late showing up, and so I'm there with him and it was the morning after Jake died and that morning I had had to tell him that his brother was dead, she said.
And they came up on the elevator, got off, and he ran into their arms crying, she said.
Then the worker in
their visitation room got on to Leah because they were crying. She pulled her aside and she said, This is supposed to not be teary. You're not supposed to be crying. This is supposed to be a happy visit for him.' And, Leah said, His baby brother just died, you know, our baby just died. He's got to process that grief.' You know, just wacky stuff.
