Justina Pelletier, the teen with the mitochondrial disorder, has been freed to return home.
This is the Connecticut girl who went to the ER at Boston Children's hospital for treatment of complications of the flu, and ended up in a locked psychiatric ward for a year, followed by several more months under the "care" of the state of Massachusetts.
She had been treated by doctors at Tufts University for years, for the same mitochondrial disease her older sister had, but the newly minted Harvard psychiatrist who first saw her at Boston Children's decided she actually had a somatic disorder instead -- her disease was in her mind -- and that her parents were committing medical child abuse by subjecting her to the medical care of the Tufts doctors. Custody was taken from her parents and put in the hands of the state, who followed the advice of psychiatrists rather than metabolic specialists, and watched her physical condition continue to deteriorate.
Recently, the state returned the direction of her care to the metabolic specialists at Tufts, and began allowing her family to have increased contact with her. Finally, the state of MA agreed with the girl's attorney to return her to her parent's custody in Connecticut.
Connecticut has never been involved in the case and she is not under CT's supervision now. Her custody has been fully returned to her parents.
Expect more cases like this, because the definition of somatic disorder followed by psychiatrists was greatly expanded a couple years ago, and many physically ill children and adults could be labeled with this diagnosis -- including people with diabetes and cancer.
The first link is to a video of Justina making a plea for her release:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2014/06/09/justina-pelletier-begs-for-release/KAIkIbjknzA9zstpx1kxyL/story.html
http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-justina-pelletier-coming-home-0618- 20140617,0,5384062.story
Justina was admitted to Boston Children's Hospital in February 2013 to see her doctor, who had recently transferred from Tufts Medical Center.
Instead of her physician, other doctors treated her and disagreed with the family that Justina's symptoms — including weakness, headaches and abdominal pain — were caused by mitochondrial disease, a diagnosis she received at Tufts in 2011.
Doctors at Boston Children's, however, said they thought her symptoms were psychologically induced, and diagnosed Justina with somatoform disorder, a mental disorder.
Boston Children's officials reported their suspicions of medical child abuse, and the state then refused to release Justina to her parents.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/06/17/judge-orders-custody-justina-pelletier-returned-parents/mDWtuGURNawSuObO0pDX4J/story.html
The teenager from West Hartford, Conn., had been at the center of a 16-month custody battle involving the Massachusetts child protection agency. This past weekend, Justina Pelletier was allowed to spend Father’s Day at home without any state supervision, the teen’s second such visit, according to Lou Pelletier.
In the custody of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families since February 2013, Justina spent most of last year at Boston Children’s Hospital, and then about four months this year at a facility in Framingham.
Three months ago, in a sharply worded opinion highly critical of the parents’ conduct, the judge gave permanent custody of Justina to the Mass. DCF, and said he believed psychological issues explained much of the teenager’s ailments.
However, top officials at DCF earlier this month filed papers with the judge suggesting the parents had made significant progress and recommended that custody return to the parents.
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