New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency v. Y.N. (072804)

At a routine doctor’s appointment for a hand injury, Y.N. (Yvonne) 1 learned that she was four months pregnant. During that four-month period, Yvonne had been taking Percocet for injuries caused in a car accident and became dependent on that medication. Hospital personnel advised her that she could not stop taking Percocet abruptly without endangering her pregnancy and recommended that she enter a methadone maintenance treatment program. Yvonne entered such a program four months later, a month before she gave birth. Her baby, P.A.C. (Paul), suffered methadone withdrawal symptoms at birth and…