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A New York mum had her newborn baby temporarily taken away from her after a bagel she ate skewed a routine urine test and showed the presence of opiates.
Elizabeth Dominiguez, 29, told WKBW about the ordeal that happened last month.
‘I was like how is this possible. I don’t do drugs. This is not okay,’ she said.
The positive reading for opiates was discovered on the day she was due to give birth and she was left confused about how it had happened.
‘I told the lab, I told the hospital, I told everybody – re-test me, do what you have to do,’ explains Elizabeth.
After giving birth to her little boy Carter, Elizabeth was then faced with even more distress when child protection services (CPS) arrived.
‘The CPS shows up in my room, questioning me, someone asked, “If we are to take your baby and kids away from you, where would you like them to go?'” says Elizabeth.
While Carter’s tests didn’t show any evidence of opiates, he was kept in for medical observation while Elizabeth was discharged and separated from her newborn boy.
Distraught and confused, Elizabeth and her husband thought back to what she’d consumed that could have skewed the results. That’s when Elisabeth remembered munching on a bagel covered in poppy seeds.
The seeds are derived from the poppy plant that also produces the narcotic, opium. Could this innocent snack be the reason for the shocking results?
Further lab tests showed that Elizabeth’s pre-birth snack was directly responsible for her positive opiate reading.
Doctors confirmed that eating poppy seeds that haven’t been fully washed can flip an initial drug screening to positive.
After being reunited with her little boy, Elizabeth couldn’t believe a bagel had caused so much trouble.
‘I just want everyone to know that this could happen and it’s such a terrible thing,’ she said.
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