URGENT MATTER
As a child, Justina Pelletier had been diagnosed with something nurses learn about, but few of us have seen. Mitochondrial disorder is quite real, and can cause a number of potential symptoms. Despite this, Justina was living with her parents and functioning well as a normal fifteen year old girl. Ten months ago, Justina got the flu and her parents took her to the Emergency Room at Boston Children's Hospital. During this visit, Justina was seen by a different team of physicians than the team who normally cares for her disorder. After examining her, the physicians disagreed with the diagnosis, and called Division of Children's Services. The police came and escorted the parents from the hospital. Then, against the will of both the parents and the fifteen year old patient, she was forcibly admitted to the hospital with the provisional diagnosis of somatoform disorder. Somatoform disorder is a mental disorder, but is not life threatening and can certainly be treated on an outpatient basis. A team of physicians who meet a child on one visit probably can't make such a diagnosis from one meeting.
Justina was then held against her will in the hospital for almost ten months. (She remains in custody and there is a gag order in this case) Her parents have been permitted very limited visitation with her, in the neighborhood of once a week for an hour or so. During this time Justina communicated with them by sending notes on folded origami papers.
In nursing, we are taught that a child deserves and is required by law to have the least restrictive environment possible in order to receive needed medical or psychiatric care. Why did the hospital take a child who was functioning as a normal teen with her parents, and place her in a severely restricted environment for an unproven, and non-lifethreatening affliction ? Did the hospital and those caring for her consider the potential damage being done to the teen by abruptly separating her from her parents ? Did they consider not only the potential for future Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for this child following nine months of what could easily be called kidnapping, if not false imprisonment ? What will happen to this young woman in the future when she probably avoids authority figures of all types, because they have acted so inappropriately ? How much money would you, as a jury member, award this young woman and her family for the year in which Boston Children's Hospital kidnapped her from her parents ?
The inmates are running the asylum, folks. This isn't a case where a young woman needs urgent cancer treatment in order to keep her alive, and her parents are refusing it on some type of religious grounds.. The sad part is that children who really need to be seen in an ER might not get there, because their parents fear their being kidnapped by any one of the Children's Hospitals dotted across the US, who feel they know more about children than do the parents who love them.
I suppose the wait for an ER visit will be 30 hours or more as Obamacare is implemented, and we can hope that physicians and hospitals are too busy in the future for such nonsense.
The expert on a child is usually his parent. They may not know all the medical jargon, but most of them, regardless of their education are excellent historians of their child's histories and symptomatology. They know when something is wrong. Unless the parent is abusive or absolutely insane, perhaps the parent ought to be the authority on the child. Just a thought. I know it's probably heresy.
Just in case you think this is a rarity, the same thing happened to a friend of mine at Denver's Children's Hospital. Two of her six children were "impounded" there, running up a bill of more than two million dollars. They too were blocked from seeing them, or knowing anything about their condition, let alone having input with regard to treatment. Sounds like the Gestapo runs such hospitals to me.
UPDATE: Several sources indicate that while Justina has been hospitalized, her physical condition has deteriorated. During her hospitalization for the supposed "somatiform disorder", she has no longer been treated for her original diagnosis of mitochondrial disorder. One program states that she is no longer able to walk. Since mitochondrial disorder is a degenerative disorder, and time is of the essence, perhaps the diagnosis of mitochondrial disorder should be revisited and this young woman should be released to her family. Her family remains under a gag order and is unable to provide interviews or talk about the condition of their daughter.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: From Chloe Blue of Boston:
https://www.facebook.com/events/619801781400019/
CALLING ALL LOCALS - PLEASE Attend this rally for Justina!
Show Support for Justina and her Family, tomorrow, THURSDAY December 12th 9am-1pm
This in the FINAL COURTDATE!!!
9am - 1PM
Suffolk Probate And Family Court
24 New Chardon Street, Boston MA
Boston, Massachusetts 02114
 |
| Justina and her parents. |
As a child, Justina Pelletier had been diagnosed with something nurses learn about, but few of us have seen. Mitochondrial disorder is quite real, and can cause a number of potential symptoms. Despite this, Justina was living with her parents and functioning well as a normal fifteen year old girl. Ten months ago, Justina got the flu and her parents took her to the Emergency Room at Boston Children's Hospital. During this visit, Justina was seen by a different team of physicians than the team who normally cares for her disorder. After examining her, the physicians disagreed with the diagnosis, and called Division of Children's Services. The police came and escorted the parents from the hospital. Then, against the will of both the parents and the fifteen year old patient, she was forcibly admitted to the hospital with the provisional diagnosis of somatoform disorder. Somatoform disorder is a mental disorder, but is not life threatening and can certainly be treated on an outpatient basis. A team of physicians who meet a child on one visit probably can't make such a diagnosis from one meeting.
Justina was then held against her will in the hospital for almost ten months. (She remains in custody and there is a gag order in this case) Her parents have been permitted very limited visitation with her, in the neighborhood of once a week for an hour or so. During this time Justina communicated with them by sending notes on folded origami papers.
In nursing, we are taught that a child deserves and is required by law to have the least restrictive environment possible in order to receive needed medical or psychiatric care. Why did the hospital take a child who was functioning as a normal teen with her parents, and place her in a severely restricted environment for an unproven, and non-lifethreatening affliction ? Did the hospital and those caring for her consider the potential damage being done to the teen by abruptly separating her from her parents ? Did they consider not only the potential for future Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for this child following nine months of what could easily be called kidnapping, if not false imprisonment ? What will happen to this young woman in the future when she probably avoids authority figures of all types, because they have acted so inappropriately ? How much money would you, as a jury member, award this young woman and her family for the year in which Boston Children's Hospital kidnapped her from her parents ?
The inmates are running the asylum, folks. This isn't a case where a young woman needs urgent cancer treatment in order to keep her alive, and her parents are refusing it on some type of religious grounds.. The sad part is that children who really need to be seen in an ER might not get there, because their parents fear their being kidnapped by any one of the Children's Hospitals dotted across the US, who feel they know more about children than do the parents who love them.
I suppose the wait for an ER visit will be 30 hours or more as Obamacare is implemented, and we can hope that physicians and hospitals are too busy in the future for such nonsense.
The expert on a child is usually his parent. They may not know all the medical jargon, but most of them, regardless of their education are excellent historians of their child's histories and symptomatology. They know when something is wrong. Unless the parent is abusive or absolutely insane, perhaps the parent ought to be the authority on the child. Just a thought. I know it's probably heresy.
Just in case you think this is a rarity, the same thing happened to a friend of mine at Denver's Children's Hospital. Two of her six children were "impounded" there, running up a bill of more than two million dollars. They too were blocked from seeing them, or knowing anything about their condition, let alone having input with regard to treatment. Sounds like the Gestapo runs such hospitals to me.
UPDATE: Several sources indicate that while Justina has been hospitalized, her physical condition has deteriorated. During her hospitalization for the supposed "somatiform disorder", she has no longer been treated for her original diagnosis of mitochondrial disorder. One program states that she is no longer able to walk. Since mitochondrial disorder is a degenerative disorder, and time is of the essence, perhaps the diagnosis of mitochondrial disorder should be revisited and this young woman should be released to her family. Her family remains under a gag order and is unable to provide interviews or talk about the condition of their daughter.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: From Chloe Blue of Boston:
https://www.facebook.com/events/619801781400019/
CALLING ALL LOCALS - PLEASE Attend this rally for Justina!
Show Support for Justina and her Family, tomorrow, THURSDAY December 12th 9am-1pm
This in the FINAL COURTDATE!!!
9am - 1PM
Suffolk Probate And Family Court
24 New Chardon Street, Boston MA
Boston, Massachusetts 02114
12 comments:
I was on the cusp of losing my daughter because the ER did not believe what happened to her. She was six months old. Thankfully, I convinced them or something. They still looked at me with suspicion the whole time. My idiot husband caused the injury. They could have removed him from us. Yes, I do believe it was an accident because his judgment proved him to be very stupid.
I had not heard of this case. Thanks for bringing it to your blog.
What I write is hearsay from an acquaintance and I have no reason to believe it is not true. A five year old whose ADHD medications were changed and he threatened a teacher with a pair of blunt ended scissors. School made him go to a psychiatrist. Psychiatrist recommended to the state of Florida that he needed to be institutionalized. Parents fled the state of Florida to Georgia. State officials came to their home and removed the little 5 year old and is now in custody in the state of Florida. Parents have been fighting in the courts for almost a year to get him back.
Mamma Bear, Thanks for your post. There are cases like this. There are cases where children who were frightened and acted up are taken from their parents. There are also cases where parents tried in vain to get help for a child with a psychiatric issue and no one helped until the child hurt or killed someone. The system either ignores the situation or grossly overreacts.
Linda, I am glad your daughter wasn't taken.
With a son we adopted as a teen, I have heard a number of horror stories of life in multiple homes in foster care. It would make it very difficult for me to turn in a family to social services knowing what the end of that can look like. Sadly, physicians and nurses are required by law to report any signs that may be abuse.
Jane, thanks for sharing this. I had read about it but I do believe we need to spotlight stories like this all the time.
My husband and I fostered children and I promise you~I cannot think of a reason I would turn any parents in. SERIOUSLY. I have gone and talked with parents and shared parenting ideas etc, BUT never would I place a child in a system that requires that he/she is in the system so that salaries are paid. NEVER.
Of course I am not insane, and my husband was a police officer, so I would alarm law enforcement and PRAY.
Parents must coach children on ways to get information out etc, in the event a situation like this occurs. I am pretty impressed that she did get messages out...seems like the will to survive and thrive is powerful in her. I pray she sues and they get 14 Trillion dollars. I mean if we can toss that to and fro in our government debt...why not at least give a shock judgment that will then be brought to a seemingly small number of 1 billion dollars!
Jennifer
Jennifer, Thanks for your post and your kind words. We know that the most traumatic thing that can happen to a child is to be ripped from their parent, even if a parent is not ideal, children benefit immensely from being with their own people. The only time that children should be removed is when the family is so fractured as in severe drug abuse or severe alcoholism, or true clear abuse as in sexual abuse, that they are completely unable to care for their children. Foster care has a pretty abyssmal record of keeping children safe itself. I would also like to see Children's Hospitals who take custody of children have the pants sued off them too.
It seems that children are property of the state, not individuals under the care and guidance of their parents. They get brainwashed in the government schools, where data is collected on them and sold to the highest bidder. They are forcible inoculated, often against parent's wishes. They are taught by our culture to be promiscuous, then relieved of the consequences without parental notification. They are confiscated from good parents by CPS and often delivered to bad. They have their homemade lunches deemed unacceptable and are fed chicken nuggets and Ritz crackers. Why not just take them from their parents and lock them in institutions?
Kristin, Before the fall of the Soviet Union this is exactly what they did. Parents were told that their only validity was to be a worker. The state "specialized" in raising children and a parent couldn't possibly have broad enough resources to do so. Besides, you would be keeping your child from all sorts of opportunities for potential gymnastics and music education if you didn't deliver him at just a few weeks old to a state school. We all know how that ended.
This is exactly where we are headed. In Europe there are jailings and confiscation of children simply for effective homeschooling. Look at Germany. It's coming this way, and our Congress won't stand up against it.
There needs to be legislation brought forth (a sort of parent's bill of rights) that prevents and instigates severe sanctions against hospitals and caregivers that interfere with the rights and bonds between parents and children unless it can be verified that they are refusing to act in the child's best interests in a life or death situation, or abuse or neglect can be substantiated. Then again, social services so often gets it wrong both ways that I don't have a lot of confidence in them either. But most of the time, I would still default in favor of the parents and family.
I have seen parents who needed to lose custody and who did. However, most families really do act in the best interests of their children, and a hospital's rapid assumption that they cannot is not only becoming more widespread, but more disturbing, as well.
Thanks for your post, David.
https://www.facebook.com/events/619801781400019/
CALLING ALL LOCALS - PLEASE Attend this rally for Justina!
Show Support for Justina and her Family, tomorrow, THURSDAY December 12th 9am-1pm
This in the FINAL COURTDATE!!!
9am - 1PM
Suffolk Probate And Family Court
24 New Chardon Street, Boston MA
Boston, Massachusetts 02114
Thank you, Chloe,
I am going to place this information at the bottom of the original post as an update also.
Best wishes to Justina and her family !
Post a Comment