Posted on 02/24/2014 8:12:51 PM PST by 1 spark
“Children who are Wards of the state may be included in research that presents minimal risk…or greater than minimal risk with a prospect of direct benefit.”
That’s a line from Boston Children’s Hospital’s “Clinical Investigations Policy and Procedure Manual. It’s the same facility that took over the care of 15-year-old Justina Pelletier against her parents’ wishes last year and they continue to wonder why.
The parents of the teen from West Hartford, Conn., at the center of a custody, patient’s rights and medical diagnosis battle have questioned the motives as to why Boston Children’s Hospital countered the medical diagnosis and recommended treatment set by a Tufts Medical Center physician years earlier.
Justina was taken as a ward of the state by the Massachusetts Department of Children & Families on Feb. 14, 2013, and remains in the child services department’s custody still.
The hospital’s clinical investigations policy continues (emphasis added):
Children who are Wards of the state may be included in research that presents greater than minimal risk with no prospect of direct benefit (46.406 (50.53) or 46.407 ( 50.54) only if the [institutional review board] determines and documents that such research is
Related to their status as wards; or
Conducted in schools, camps, hospital, institutions, or similar settings in which the majority of children involved as participants are not wards.
In such cases, the patient is represented by at least one advocate, appointed by the institutional review board, who will act on their behalf and in the patient’s best interest.
Any time research would involve a ward of the state, the document says a proposal must be presented in detail to the institutional review board and be approved by DCF’s Research Proposal Review Committee. Boston Children’s Hospital declined to comment about the case and about the policy to TheBlaze.
Dr. Richard Boles, a pediatrician in the Los Angeles area and the medical director of Courtagen Life Sciences, a biotechnology and DNA sequencing company specializing in metabolic disorders, told TheBlaze it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for Boston Children’s Hospital to conduct medical research.
“They’re a research facility,” he said.
Boles told TheBlaze that any research involves ethics committees and is “up front.” He said the system is so procedural now that if he wanted to survey his own patients for something as simple asking where they bought their vitamins, so he could advise his other patients accordingly, he would have to go through a whole protocol and a wealth of paperwork.
BCH’s clinical investigation policy echoes language in regulations set by the federal Department of Health and Human Services. According to HHS, for children to be involved in research, parental or guardian permission must be given. A “guardian,” is defined as the “individual who is authorized under applicable State or local law to consent on behalf of a child to general medical care,” which, in the case of Justina Pelletier, would be DCF.
Other institutions, like Johns Hopkins Medicine and Duke University Health System to name a couple, have similar guidelines for research involving children, including those who are under care of the state.
But an article published in the journal Pediatrics in 2008 argued that the protections for wards of the state in research might not go far enough.
“Current federal regulations mandate additional safeguards, beyond those that apply to all pediatric research, for some research with wards of the state. Although these additional requirements are attentive to the concerns research with wards of the state raises, we argue that they do not go far enough,” the authors wrote.
“Society is obligated to ensure the harms wards of the state have already experienced due to parental mistreatment or abandonment are not compounded by further harm from inappropriate clinical research enrollment,” they continued. “This means wards of the state must be appropriately protected from risk and from being unfairly selected to bear burdens in clinical research. To these ends, additional safeguards and modifications to existing guidelines are needed.”
On its website, BCH describes itself as “home to the world’s largest research enterprise based at a pediatric hospital” with “$225 million in annual funding, including more federal funding than any other pediatric facility.”
It is unknown if Justina Pelletier is involved in a research program. The teen was diagnosed in 2011 with mitochondrial disease, a disease where the mitochondria (the energy-producing organelle in cells) does not function properly leading to a variety of symptoms including pain, fatigue and gastrointestinal issues. While being treated for this disease, her parents, Linda and Lou, said she was doing well.
In February 2013, she came down with the flu, which for mitochondrial patients can be more severe, her older sister Jessica told TheBlaze, and was recommended by a Connecticut hospital to be transferred to Boston Children’s Hospital where she was supposed to see a gastrointestinal specialist. Instead, Lou Pelletier told TheBlaze Monday she was seen by a neurologist as she came through the hospital’s emergency room who said she didn’t have mitochondrial disease but somatoform disorder, a psychological disorder that said the symptoms she experienced originated in her head.
Boston doctors wanted to take a different approach with Justina’s treatment, something which Lou said they were initially on board with until they found out it meant taking her off her treatments for mitochondrial disease.
When they arrived at Boston Children’s on Feb. 14, 2013, to discharge Justina and take her to Tufts instead, they were accused of over-medicalizing their child, a form of abuse, and DCF took custody. Since then the Pelletiers have been in and out of court fighting to get Justina back and treated for mitochondrial disease. Without treatment for this disease for more than a year, Lou said his daughter is failing.
“If she’s not in the proper facility, she will die,” Lou told TheBlaze earlier this week.
“I am trying to save my daughter’s life,” he said, breaking a court-imposed gag order, something which DCF filed that he be held in contempt of court for doing.
Actually, it's the governor's fault. That would be Deval "Together we can" Patrick. It's his fault because fish rot from the head down (as pointed out by another Massachusetts governor). Thus, whatever DCF commits is Deval's fault!
As for federal lawyer pukes, there is, of course, US AG Eric Holder, appointed by third-rate Illinois lawyer Barack Hussein "Yes we can" Obama. It's Obama's fault because he is scum whose Party believes the government should be executing the role it is executing in this case.
Boston Children’s Hospital’s psychology wing is at the leading edge of promoting drug remedies for children against parental wishes. Dr. Joseph Biederman is the chief practitioner who was exposed 6 years ago for getting kickbacks from the drug companies.
I wonder who the judge is.
The REAL question is which LawFirms nominated the Judge
and are THOSE lawyers now practicing, secretly, before him.
I am very aware of the public side of the story. But it is not the whole story.
Until more is known—for instance, what kinds of diagnostic tests have been run and what did they show—there is simply not enough information to determine if a child really has been removed from her family by uncaring bureaucrats, or if she is a victim of Munchausen by proxy.
Has the name of the judge been released?
and he’s not sitting in a federal pen now, why?
There is plenty of information. You just haven’t read it.
I’m just beginning to learn more about this man, so I don’t have more information.
http://www.mass.gov/courts/courtsandjudges/judgesandjudicialofficers/johnstonj.html
It's a little confusing: Joseph Johnston is listed at Essex County, but this case is in Suffolk County. Martindale does show him in Suffolk. ZabaSearch turns up a Joseph F. Johnston living in West Roxbury, which is in Suffolk County. Intelius indicates the West Roxbury guy is 56. Judge Johnston was admitted to the bar in 1985. Intelius also indicates the West Roxbury guy is related to a Kathleen Johnston. According to this article the judge's wife is named Kathy.
If she were a victim of Münchausen by proxy, her condition should have improved over her 13 months in the Regime's custody. Instead, it has worsened considerably.
Nope. Biederman and the other two culprits got a wrist slap.
Better than nothing, though still inadequate.
Thank you. I’m also hearing more about the guy from the Netherlands who has a career stake in this. It’s now in the Twitterverse, so I think we’ll be hearing more on this story.
Good work. TY.
I have read the only available information there is, the information provided by the family. Since theirs is the only story out there, it is hard to know what is the truth.
What I do know is that people with Munchausen syndrome (either primary or by proxy) can be extremely convincing and sound utterly sincere. They have an uncanny ability to convince people that their concerns about their medical condition are not being taken seriously by the medical community.
Having only heard the family's side, I have no evidence to rule out or in Munchausen by proxy. I also have no evidence to rule out or in bureaucratic overreach.
I would say that the fact that she has been moved into a foster home means she is getting better, not worse.
One year out of her parent’s care and she’s in a wheel chair. The Boston Children’s Hospital put her in that wheel chair, not her parents. That’s the exact opposite of what happens with Munchausen syndrome.
They won’t get involved here and to all that have experineced these protective agencies we know it.
When your family is interfered with by these protective agencies you have to get down,learn your rights and then try and find an attorney who will go up against another attorney and that’s the problem. it is extremely difficult and that’s why those violated by these courts are simply filing pro se or in propria persona and taking their cases and learning step by step to get in front of a judge and jury.
Right now under the law,these parents have no rights,their daughter is a ward of the courts,she has no rights,has her ad litems who can dictate who visits and where she will reside,get treatment etc etc .
A convicted prisoner has more rights than their daughter and them.
Believe me,anyone that has been violated and victimized by these kangaroo courts will affirm what I’m saying.
The system is out of control and been out of control and these court appointees have been given too much power and authority under these courts.
Hopefully,due to the publicity,they can retain a high power attorney.
As I have pointed out in other posts, a child victim of Munchausen by proxy can learn to very convincingly fake symptoms--including the need for a wheelchair.
Also, what supposedly landed her in the hospital was the flu. Influenza can cause neurological damage, a condition called "Guillain-Barre syndrome" that leaves its victims physically incapacitated.
The fact that she was well enough to be sent into foster care suggests that her physical condition *is* improving.
I continue to maintain that we do not have enough information to judge what is really going on in this case. I reserve judgment until I know more facts on *both* sides of the issue.
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