This past August, many news outlets reported on a woman from Minnesota who gave birth to conjoined twins. Unfortunately, only one of the twins survived after birth and the mother was banned from seeing her daughter after her visiting hours were revoked.
Now there is a brighter side to this story after the mother's visiting hours after being reinstated after a couple of months. According to Fox News, Amber McCollough will be allowed to spend a maximum of four hours every day with her daughter Hannah. However, she still cannot see Hannah in the hours between Sunday and Tuesday.
While this is still not enough time for a mother to spend with her newborn daughter, this is still a huge step forward considering the circumstances. FOX31 Denver was the first to break the news about the reversal, but the hospital did not confirm it themselves citing the HIPAA privacy regulations.
"This shouldn't happen to anyone. This is a complete abuse of power, and my daughter is sitting in a hospital room paying for it because she can't have [her] mom there," McCullough said in a recent interview with FOX31 Denver. Amber is now raising money to move her now 4 month old daughter to Boston's Children Hospital in the hopes to further lengthen her visiting hours. She has also filed a lawsuit worth $900,000 against the Children's Hospital of Colorado.
According to the New York Daily News, the hospital gave her three visitation hours every day three days after the separation surgery done to her conjoined twins. They state that they only prevented McCollough from visiting her child because she violated a behavioural agreement made in December of the last year.
"She was disruptive to staff and interfering with their ability to take care of other patients. The situation has become untenable and unworkable." McCollough states that the ban was simply a form of retaliation.
