The smiles have long faded....
"Conn. teen in long custody battle to move again; Parents agonize as Mass. sends daughter to foster care facility" by Patricia Wen | Globe Staff, February 25, 2014
A Connecticut teenager caught in a yearlong custody fight between her parents and Massachusetts child protection officials will be moved to a new foster care program on the North Shore, a ruling suggesting she remains medically stable but one that triggered an anguished response from her parents when it was announced by a juvenile court judge Monday.
Lou Pelletier, the father of 15-year-old Justina, shouted angrily in the courthouse corridor, and her mother, Linda, fainted and was taken to the Massachusetts General Hospital emergency room.
The case drew national attention when Boston Children’s Hospital lodged a “medical child abuse” complaint against Justina’s parents last year amid a dispute over her diagnosis, leading the state to take custody and keep her hospitalized for almost a year.
She was under the care of other doctors, but hey, this is Massachusetts where the state knows better even if kids and others are killed on thier watch.
“She’s hanging by a thread,” Lou Pelletier said of Justina on Monday night, speaking by phone from Mass. General, where his wife was recovering. “I want her home.”
He said the family is upset that Justina remains in state custody and is moving from a Framingham residential treatment center to a place that is even farther away from their home in West Hartford, Conn., making their permitted weekly visits more difficult.
Strange how it worked out that way. Message: don't you dare challenge the state or any powerful institution in Boston.
He said the girl is going to Shore Educational Collaborative, a program in Essex County that includes a daytime special education and treatment program in coordination with private foster care living arrangements.
Pelletier also said Juvenile Court Judge Joseph Johnston, who issued the ruling Monday, is reviewing a plan to have UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester primarily oversee his daughter’s medical care instead of Children’s Hospital.
The decision to involve UMass Memorial, if finalized, is likely to defuse tension between two Boston hospitals involved in the emotional saga.
Uh-huh. Well, we see where the important concern and care lie wight he judge. Wow.
The parents say that Justina suffers from mitochondrial disorder, a group of genetic ailments that affect how cells produce energy, often causing problems with the gut, brain, and muscles. Justina had been treated for this condition by doctors at Tufts Medical Center in Boston.
Then last February, Justina was brought to Children’s Hospital, where doctors in a matter of days concluded that her difficulty in eating and walking were primarily psychological in origin and that she suffers from somatoform disorder, which describes a patient with symptoms that are real but for which no physical or biological explanation can be found.
It's a way of saying she and they are crazy.
And this next part, well, it'll break your heart....
Justina stayed at Children’s, for much of the time in a locked psychiatric ward, until last month, when she was moved to Wayside Youth and Family Support Network in Framingham.
Oh, that poor kid!
I suppose the parents should feel blessed that she is still alive and hasn't been subdued.
The case has exposed the often fuzzy line between psychiatric and physical illnesses and highlighted the growing use of the term medical child abuse, which can be attached to parents seen to be pushing for unnecessary and potentially harmful interventions for their children.
Yeah, now what prescriptions can I hook your kids on?
The Pelletiers have said that during the weekly visits that the state has allowed them to have with Justina, they have noticed a major decline in her condition, including that she moves around only in a wheelchair now.
The state has allowed sort of says it all.
Both said that her stomach is bloated with strange red lines running along her abdomen, and that they fear she has some kind of raging infection.
“It could be some kind of protein deficiency, or some kind of poison in her system,” the father said.
On the other hand, the state’s decision to place her at an educational and treatment facility would suggest that officials believe she is medically stable. The Department of Children and Families has declined to say anything about Justina’s condition, citing client confidentiality.
I don't think anyone should be asking them anything.
But Children’s Hospital said in a statement Monday, “We are pleased with the progress our patient made when she was at Boston Children’s and with her continued progress.”
Lou Pelletier spoke about Monday’s hearing despite a far-reaching gag order from Johnston preventing the family and other parties from speaking to the media about the case, and a complaint by the state child welfare agency last week that he had violated the gag order several times already.
Well, his daughter can't speak for herself and his wife's passed out so SOMEONE HAS TO! I can certainly understand him defying the judge here.
Jeffrey Pyle, a lawyer who specializes in free-speech issues for law firm Prince Lobel in Boston, told the Globe that such “a blanket gag order is rare.” He said the order was “breathtaking” in scope because it goes far in silencing what the parents can say over a profound issue.
I feel sorry for the parents. They have met full on with indu$try and $tate power in something that contradicts everything we were always told and taught about America, and especially New England.
Several conservative Christian organizations and the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts said they may step in to defend the Pelletiers’ rights to speak out about the case. Two lawyers — Mathew D. Staver of Liberty Counsel and David C. Gibbs of the National Center for Life and Liberty — flew to Boston and appeared in court, hoping to defend the parents’ rights to publicly speak out about the fate of their daughter. But they were not allowed to participate in the proceedings pending further review by the judge.
Staver insisted the Pelletiers have a strong case. He said the gag order is not in writing, but part of an oral order issued late last year. He said, referring to a transcript, that it states that “no one is to talk about this case at all to any media, whether it is local here or local to the family in Connecticut.”
Meanwhile Jessie Rossman, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Massachusetts, said Monday that it has been reviewing the First Amendment issues arising out of the gag order and that “we are deeply concerned about multiple aspects.”
She said no final decision has been made about whether to join the case, “but we are looking at ways that we can be helpful.”
Another court hearing before Johnston on Justina’s future placement and custody has been scheduled for March 17, and another hearing about the validity of the gag order has been set for March 24.
Lou Pelletier said he is preparing additional legal action against the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families.
“I’m going to make sure the world comes down on this state,” he said.
DCF is already under the weight of the rubble of a failed agency.
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Apparently the Globe is none too happy with them, either:
"Unfortunately, [the] Pelletier’s story seems destined for the cable-news hothouse, where every story must have villains and where nuance is an alien concept....
I hope you can $ee why I'm so sour on my war pre$$, thank you.
The Pelletier case has exposed serious shortcomings, first and foremost DCF’s lack of sufficient expertise to evaluate complex medical situations.
But the outside groups siding with the parents, which included
protesters outside the courthouse on Monday, risk turning the case into a
circus.
The state is the one that has turned this into a circus!
State officials and courts weighing Justina’s future need to
tune out such distractions and focus on doing what’s right for her.
That would be giving her back to the parents and her doctors, and that would mean the state admitting it was wrong, and thus it won't happen.
--more--"
Hey, I'm just happy the Globe cares about kids.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Teen in custody case won’t be moved to new foster care" by Patricia Wen | Globe Staff, February 26, 2014
A Connecticut teenager in the middle of a yearlong custody fight between her parents and the Massachusetts child-protection agency is likely to remain for now at a Framingham residential facility where she’s been for the past month and not move to a Merrimac foster care placement that was discussed in juvenile court Monday, according to two sources briefed on the case.
A small victory for the parents.
At the closed-door hearing this week, Juvenile Court Judge Joseph Johnston spoke about a plan by the state Department of Children and Families to transfer 15-year-old Justina Pelletier to Shared Living Collaborative in Merrimac. But this facility has apparently backed away from the idea, largely because of the highly contentious nature of the case and the national media attention it has drawn, these sources said.
Meanwhile, one of the sources said the judge on Monday expressed openness to allowing Justina to return to her West Hartford, Conn., home to live with her parents, as long as certain oversight conditions were met.
Lawyers representing Justina’s parents are expected to help look into such a plan and report back to the court on March 17.
When the Globe contacted Shared Living Collaborative Wednesday morning and asked about its role in the Pelletier case, a staffer said “no comment” and hung up.
The nonprofit was possibly in for some unwanted public exposure after the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, head of the Christian Defense Coalition based in Washington D.C., sent out a notice on social media about a vigil to be held Saturday in front of the facility in Merrimac.
It called for “people of faith and good will to stand in solidarity with the Pelletier family and join us at a vigil and public witness at the facility.” Mahoney’s group is one of several national conservative Christian groups that have rallied behind the Pelletiers because of what they perceive as the government trampling on parental rights.
Some times "perceptions" are the truth, and consider my agenda-pushing source.
Reached by phone Wednesday, Mahoney acknowledged that he had heard Justina is not going to be moved to the Merrimac facility. He said that the place backed out “when they heard we were doing a demonstration.” He said his group is now organizing a weekend prayer vigil at the residential facility in Framingham, Wayside Youth and Family Support Network. The girl has been living there since January, when she was released from Boston Children’s Hospital after nearly a year, most of that time in a locked psychiatric ward.
He said he understands that the Framingham facility cares for young people with emotional and special needs, among other issues, and his group will take measures to be sure that “if you’re inside the facility, you won’t be able to see us.”
The Merrimac foster care facility is apparently one of a number of places that have backed out after seriously looking into taking Justina.
Late last summer, Webster House in New Britain, Conn., considered accepting Justina after discussions with the Department of Children and Families but backed out after the girl’s father, Lou Pelletier, threatened to sue if it took his daughter. Later, Justina’s parents softened their view of the Webster House after visiting the place, but by early September, the facility’s administrator e-mailed the father: “We have determined, unfortunately, that we are unable to take on the risk of becoming involved in a protracted legal battle that could be very costly.”
The Pelletier case involves a controversial and increasingly used term called medical child abuse — which refers to parents who seek excessive and potentially harmful care for their children — and highlights challenges that the medical community faces in diagnosing patients who exhibit both troubling physical and psychiatric symptoms.
Somehow it is always the poor institution in my paper.
Justina’s parents insist that their daughter suffers from mitochondrial disorder, a group of genetic ailments that affect how cells produce energy, often causing problems with the gut, brain, and muscles. Justina’s physicians at Tufts Medical Center had been treating her for this illness for about a year, saying she exhibited many of its symptoms, and were still in the midst of determining if she had a clear-cut case of this disorder.
I guess Tufts doesn't know what they are doing, so don't go to that well-respected chain of Boston hospitals for care.
Then last February, Justina was brought to Children’s Hospital after suffering severe intestinal issues, and having trouble walking. Doctors there, in a matter of a few days, concluded that her problems were primarily psychiatric, and that the parents were ignoring the root cause of her problems and pushing for unnecessary medical interventions.
Yeah, don't go to any Boston hospital.
When the parents sought to discharge Justina, the hospital filed medical child abuse charges, which were ultimately supported by the state and later a Juvenile Court judge.
Children’s Hospital has said in a statement it was pleased with the girl’s progress in and out of the hospital. Justina’s parents, however, contend her condition has worsened, and that she can now only move around in a wheelchair.
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