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Russian Consulate clearing out situation around family where baby was taken away

The Nikolayev’s turned for help to lawyers and to Sacramento’s Slavic community

LOS ANGELES, April 28 (Itar-Tass) - Russia’s Consulate General in San Francisco is informed about the situation in the family of Anna and Alex Nikolayev, who are believed to come from Russia and from whom the U.S. guardianship agencies took away a five-months-old son Sammy, Deputy Consul Igor Shaktar-ool told Itar-Tass.

“The Consulate General is aware of that situation and our workers and Russia’s honorary consul in Sacramento, Natalya Owen, are doing their best to clear out all the details of what’s happening,” Shaktar-ool said.

“Very shortly, the Consulate will send an official query to California’s social services,” he said.

Police and the guardianship agency of Sacramento confiscated the baby from the couple after the parents found the medical treatment given to the boy by a local hospital to be unqualified, in the light of which they transferred the baby of their own free will to a different clinic without getting a discharge summery from the hospital.

April 24, doctors of the Sutter Memorial hospital filed a petition with the guardianship agency, on the basis of which the workers of the latter arrived at the Nikolayevs’ house and took away the boy on the pretext of “inappropriate parental care.”

The Nikolayev’s turned for help to lawyers and to Sacramento’s Slavic community. Friday, the authorities allowed them to see Sammy at hospital.

A local news channel said court hearings on the situation have been scheduled for Monday, April 29.

The lawyers say that the physicians who initiated the boy’s confiscation from the family had offered the parents to perform a complicated cardiac surgery instead of giving him a proper treatment for flu.

“We knew that Sammy had cardiac murmurs and we’ve been consulting a cardiologist once in two weeks’ time,” says Anna Nikloyaev. “We know his diagnosis perfectly well and keep the situation under control as of the moment Sammy was born.”

“We take all the medical checkups on time and we didn’t have any warnings about an immediate danger or a need for emergency surgery,” she said.

The spouses had an opportunity to see their boy Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They have been allowed to feed Sammy three times a day and to stay with him.

Lawyers say in the meantime it is not ruled out that the baby will return home Monday after all the documents on appropriate medical treatment are submitted to court.

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