Beth Alison Maloney began her legal career in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. Knowing the power of a true story and vowing that no child would suffer as her son had, she wrote the pivotal memoir Saving Sammy: Curing the Boy Who Caught OCD. The book reads like a novel, describing the battle it took to have her son properly diagnosed and treated for the simple strep infection that caused his “mental” illness.

On the day the book was published, she appeared on The Today Show with her fully-recovered son, and the disorder catapulted to national awareness. Saving Sammy received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly, a “stand up and cheer” from Booklist, and was a finalist in Books for a Better Life. Ms. Maloney continued to empower parents with Childhood Interrupted: The Complete Guide to PANDAS and PANS. PANDAS/PANS is the acronym for the disorder that plagued Sammy: infection-triggered mental illness.

During 2019, Ms. Maloney created the relationships that led to establishing clinics to treat the disorders at UCLA and the University of Arkansas.

As an attorney, Ms. Maloney is nationally recognized for her expertise in “medical kidnapping” cases, a term commonly used to describe when the courts remove the custody of children from their parents due to medical disagreements between physicians and parents. She collaborates with personal injury attorneys across the country seeking recovery for parents who have been victimized by false allegations. Ms. Maloney consults nationwide in three areas concerning children with complex medical disorders: pursuing correct medical treatment, securing appropriate educational supports from public schools, and addressing custody issues when an illness is at the heart of the dispute either between parents or with state child protection agencies.

Ms. Maloney has participated in scores of television appearances, articles, broadcast interviews, conferences, and speaking engagements in the United States, Canada, and Europe. In addition to The Today Show, appearances include The Doctors, Mystery Diagnosis, W5 (Canada), Fox News LA, AM Northwest, Glenn Beck, Bonnie Hunt, Good Morning LA, Fox Q13 Seattle, 207, GMA Health, and KMOX (CBS). The Wall Street Journal named her as one of “5 Things to Know About PANS.”  Live interviews include NPR stations, Sirius XM’s Doctor Radio, talk radio, and internet and podcast programs. Her presentations before conferences and fundraisers include UCIrvine, International Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Foundation, Autism One, NE PANS/PANDAS, PANDAS Ireland, PANDAS Canada, and the Pediatric Research & Advocacy Initiative.  

Ms. Maloney has brought key stories to the media, including the exposé about the collaboration between Boston Children’s Hospital and the Massachusetts DCF to have the state take custody of children over medical disagreements. The story was featured on the front page of The Boston Globe and was covered by The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, ABC News, and Fox News. The circumstances served as the backdrop for a 2016 UC Davis Law Review article and the 2015 New York Times op-ed piece linked here. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/opinion/sunday/the-new-child-abuse-panic.html Most recently, she took the story of four-year-old Jaxen Steimlosk to the Portland Press Herald. The front page story exposed how the State of Maine tried to remove Jaxen, who has muscular dystrophy, from his parents by claiming his mother made it all up. Ms. Maloney battled CPS, three hospitals, the Spurwink organization, and a cabal of physicians and other providers in Boston and Portland. She prevented them from ever taking Jaxen. The in-depth article (see Current News, 1/27/20) offered readers rare insight into what happens behind closed doors in the secret world of child protection cases.