If You Aren't Mad, Get Mad!

Justina Pelletier is on her way to Connecticut, it was announced on news outlets Sunday evening. Mother's Day was Justina's last day to be confined in Massachusetts.  She will be transferred to a Connecticut facility, but remain under Massachusett's DCF custody.  The final insult by the state was that her mother was not allowed to visit her yesterday, on the grounds of not having the staff to handle the media presence, though a police detail guarded the parking lot entrance.

If you have been at all aware of this case which has dragged on in the courts since Valentine's Day of 2013, you will know that Justina's world as she knew it came crashing to an abrupt halt when the sick teenager was taken to Boston Children's Hospital on advice of her treating doctor from Tufts Medical, Dr. Mark Korson, Chief of Metabology, who had diagnosed and had been treating Justina for mitochondrial disorder for the past two years, for a planned direct admission to see her former GI doctor, Dr. Alejandro Flores, who had tested and treated her for bowel neuropathy.  

Her treatments apparently were working,for Justina had been attending school, enjoying friends, and competitively ice skating that winter, until a bout with the flu caused a relapse.  Instead, she was intercepted by a young neurologist, Dr. Jurriaan Peters, seven months out of residency,  who declared it was to be his case.  Within twelve hours of her admission, and following a twenty-five minute interview by a somatoform researcher psychologist, Dr. Simona Bujoreanu, BCH, under child protection specialist, Dr. Amanda Newton,  declared Justina to be suffering from "severe, persistent somatoform".  

The team, the next day, handed guidelines to Linda Pelletier that stipulated she was not to return her child to her former doctors, could not seek out specialists or medical second opinions unless Children's deemed it necessary, and that Children's would begin taking Justina off of her medications.  When the Pelletiers declined and sought to discharge their daughter to transfer to Tufts, they learned that the hospital had filed a 51A claiming medical abuse against them, and The Pelletiers were escorted off the hospital grounds. Justina became a ward of the state, in effect, a prisoner for the past fifteen months, held in locked down psych wards, and not allowed contact with family or her friends back home, save for a once a week twenty minute phone call and a Friday one hour visit.  

The teen, who had suffered a stroke at the age of seven, was taken off her heart meds, according to the family, as well as the protocols designed to treat her mitochondrial symptoms.  She was walking when she entered BCH, but has since been confined to a wheelchair. The family saw, on one visit, deep red streaks on her abdomen, extending from her port, which could be indicative of infection or sepsis.  Her sister, Jennifer, claims that Justina has no sensation below her hips and cannot walk now.  And Justina was taken to the emergency room from the Wayside facility in Framingham, with no explanation ever given to her parents.

She has been denied her year round education (for which federal charges against the state will be forthcoming).  She has not been allowed to see a priest or attend services.  She has missed out on her school and her friends, as they advance on.  She no longer ice skates.  She has missed out on birthdays, family holidays and vacations, playing cards with her grandmother, and enjoying her home life and her beloved pets.

Get mad.  Stay mad.  Mad enough to act. Watch for legislation when it is introduced to correct these imbalances in the Commonwealth.  And let your voice be heard.

Join us.  www.freejustina.com  #FreeJustina

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