Florida Mom Seeks 2nd Opinion on Dying Newborn After Car Accident – Loses Custody of All Three Children and Baby Dies in State Care

When an 8 month pregnant mother arrived at the hospital after a car accident, her baby was clearly in trouble. Doctors allegedly seemed to be more concerned about Johnna Furman's broken wrist than the emergency facing her unborn baby. Her baby needed to be born quickly, but the delay of a necessary c-section resulted in life threatening lack of oxygen to the baby in the womb. Baby Gabriel was born with brain damage and other serious medical conditions allegedly arising from this lack of oxygen. Throughout his first week and a half of life, doctors at the University of Florida Shands Hospital told Johnna that her baby would not survive. She refused to accept that answer. When she tried to transfer care of her baby to a local children's hospital for a second opinion, doctors from Shands Hospital reported her to Child Protective Services. While doctors blamed the mother, Johnna says that it was their medical malpractice that resulted in brain damage to her baby, ultimately leading to his death, and that the hospital is covering up what they did by blaming her. Child Protective Services seized her baby and her other 2 children 11 days after the car accident. Evidence that would have proven her innocence was not heard by the Florida judge, who is known for approving over 30,000 adoptions, and her parental rights were terminated less than a year later. She had another baby the following year, but Florida seized custody of that baby, too. In a video that Johnna recorded to talk about her case, she said: "My family's gone. I can never have another child. I don't understand how this is supposed to be the American dream, that justice doesn't matter. The truth doesn't matter."