The following account was written by a Heritage Defense member family we assisted. Included is a portion of video of the confrontation with the CPS investigator while the Heritage Defense attorney was on the phone.

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“When my kids were very ill, I took them to see their doctor. We had been recommended to this doctor because they were lenient about vaccines.

We had been there before with no issues. During this visit, I asked them to test my daughter for whooping cough. I believed the test would help me with decisions about treating the illness.

The doctor prescribed an antibiotic for whooping cough and ordered the test. Since it was a holiday weekend, she let me know not to expect the results until Tuesday. She also had us schedule a follow-up appointment for Tuesday morning.

That morning, as we were getting ready to leave for the appointment, I received a call from the Department of Health. They informed me that my daughter had tested positive for whooping cough and that her provider had been advised to prescribe antibiotics for the entire family.

At the appointment, the doctor asked if the antibiotics had helped. I explained that we hadn’t started them yet because we weren’t sure if it was whooping cough or just a bad cold. I told her we would be starting them and asked her to prescribe them for the rest of the family. She refused to prescribe them for the adults, saying her insurance only covered patients up to age 25. We made an appointment with another doctor to get the antibiotics for the whole family. I picked up the prescriptions, and we started the kids on them that night.

The next morning was rough. The kids hadn’t slept well, and everyone was very sick. There was a knock at the door. I saw someone official, unsure if it was the Department of Health or CPS, so I put the chain on the door and opened it a crack. The woman identified herself as being with CPS, and said she was there because of the kids having whooping cough and were not vaccinated. She mentioned medical neglect and asked if I could come outside to discuss it.

I told her I needed her to wait and came inside to call Heritage Defense. I panicked at first, not remembering the number, but then recalled their magnet was on the freezer. I quickly called and had a lawyer on the phone immediately. He walked me through what to do and what I should or shouldn't say.

The CPS worker seemed nervous about dealing with an attorney. She said that usually only their attorneys talk to other attorneys. She was hesitant to give him her contact information and became visibly shaky and uneasy once she realized I had legal counsel on the line.

She began going through a checklist of questions while I had the lawyer on speakerphone. When she started asking about homeschooling, he stepped in and said I didn’t need to answer that. She responded that it would “look better” if she had all the information. He asked if the allegations were related to homeschooling. She became frustrated and said, “The allegations are about vaccines, but it’s fine, I get it, thank you,” then stormed off to her car and left.

We were later assigned a lawyer who was great, communicative, and reassuring. He tried to contact her, but her voicemail said she would be out of the office and back in April, even though this was September. He also emailed her, but received no response. After several failed attempts to reach her, we let it go. She never returned, and we haven’t heard from CPS since. I believe having a lawyer present scared her off.This entire ordeal was an unnecessary and extremely stressful event for my family, especially during an already difficult time dealing with illness. Heritage Defense was a godsend. They gave us a sliver of peace during a terrible storm. I now recommend Heritage to all my friends, I don’t know what we would have done without them.”