Parents Hail Small Victory for Justina Pelletier as Tufts Doctors Take Charge

ABC News ^ | March 04, 2014 | Susan Donaldson James

[Ken H]

Justina Pelletier, the sick teenager who for the last year has been the center of a custody tug of war between her parents and the state of Massachusetts, will get treatment with her original doctors at Tufts Medical Center, a family court judge has ruled.

Her parents, Linda and Lou Pelletier of West Hartford, Conn., have argued that their 15-year-old daughter suffers from the physical effects of mitochondrial disease and has not been medically treated since Boston Children's Hospital diagnosed her with somatoform disorder in February 2013.

The hospital had accused the parents of medical child abuse and Justina has been confined to its locked psychiatric ward for treatment of a mental disorder.

"This is a victory, but the battle is long from being over," said Lou Pelletier, a financial planner with four daughters. "The [Department of Children and Families] is still in charge, Justina is still in a psychiatric residential facility and the child abuse charges have not gone away.

[gleeaikin]

This seems are serious case of medical malpractice and abuse by the hospital and government, not by the parents. A lot of very good comments with this article.

[USNBandit]

Mass Children's has referred 4 other families to DCF for the same reason in the last 18 months. It isn't about abuse, but rather a difference of medical opinion from the previous referring physician.

A friend of one of my co-workers took his child to Children's after the children's hospital in Burlington said they couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. She was in the hospital in Boston for 36 hours when the parents came in and were told they couldn't see their child. DCF got a judge to put a gag order on them, too. The parents followed the gag order, but set loose the grandfather who went to the local press. It still took them 3 months to get their child back.

Their isn't any way in hell I would take my kid to that hospital.

[MacMattico]

Why in the world did it take so long for her original doctors to be brought back in?

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

It seems to me that some doctor (or group of them) at Mass Children’s has a sort of doctor’s version of Munchausen’s by proxy — they see abuse where there is none.

I hope the girl’s family is able to sue the h-e-double toothpicks out of that hospital. It sounds like that’s the only thing that will get them to stop this kind of nonsense. I hope the girl has not been so damaged that she can’t recover.

[Usagi_yo]

They can only be sued for medical malpractice. They can’t be sued for contacting CPS == is the most likely scenario.

CPS agencies have way way too much immunity. They can’t be sued, they can’t be prosecuted and there is a certain % of them that feel deified and righteous and consequently abuse the system to build careers and prominence in either politics or civil service. \

[Donnafrflorida]

i read recently that they can do “Research” on those deemed “wards of the state.
fine print.

[Diogenesis]

The girl was KIDNAPPED for research.

Disgusting.

[Jim Noble]

a sort of doctor’s version of Munchausen’s by proxy — they see abuse where there is none

Munchausen's by proxy is a very difficult diagnosis to make, especially since unlike Munchausen's in adults, the child's father is often the actual target of the mother's rage.

I don't know anything about this case (how could I? For that matter, how could you?) We don't have the records, we don't have the consultant opinions, we don't have the lab data, and Children's Hospital would be breaking the law if we did have any of those things.

I do know a lot about Children's Hospital of Boston, though. In addition to professional connections, two of my children have been patients there, and one had his life saved over a long illness in infancy.

The charges against CH that are all over the internet are very, VERY unlikely to be true. Anything is possible, of course - but everything you read and hear about this case is completely devoid of the evidence in favor of a diagnosis of Munchausen's by proxy - and that evidence can't be presented, both because of ethics and the law.

Massachusetts DCF, on the other hand, is completely able to do all the bad things they're accused of. But the differences between the professionals at CH and at DCF are, well, day and night.

[hinckley buzzard]

I don't know anything specific about CH but I do know that a hospital or hospital department can become a locus for cult like aberration. All it takes is one influential doctor with a grandiose and idiosyncratic obsession to cause a facility to go off the rails. It happened across the country back in the eighties and nineties, with the child sex abuse witch hunt, during which "expert" doctors and CFS departments acted identically to the way they are in this instance-- jumping to conclusions, absconding with children, colluding with some doctor who wants to score long bombs down field with every patient, and at one time back then the Harvard Medical School psychiatry program was infested with sexual abusers masquerading as experts. Identify the head of this "research" program, investigate his record, and I would bet there will be a very interesting back story.

[Jim Noble]

Everything you say is true, but in this case I really can’t imagine that the CH version of the story (which is not public) hasn’t been presented to the service chiefs and to the board, and been signed off on by legal counsel.

They could be wrong, but that’s not the way to bet.