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Mom: Hospital Forced Her to Drink Laxative

A West Palm Beach woman wrongly accused of drug smuggling testified that Jackson Memorial Hospital was negligent for forcing her to take a laxative when she was seven months pregnant, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports.

The 1997 incident involved Janneral Denson, whom U.S. Customs Service agents alleged had ingested bags of drugs, the Sun Sentinel reports. She was 28 weeks pregnant, but still was prescribed a laxative not recommended for pregnant women, she testified Tuesday in a Miami-Dade courtroom.

Her son, now 17, was born early. He testified that he is enrolled in honors classes, but his mother says he performs poorly on tests and doesn’t trust him to get a driver’s license, the Sun Sentinel reports.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.