When government takes your children


prisonchaplain
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I\'ve follwed this story for a few weeks now. Basically, parents were having their child treated for a genetic disorder. They were referred to Boston Medical Center, and an intern and psychologist reported that the disorder was wrong, and the child had a psychological problem. They immediately filed a report with Child Protective Services--accusing the parents of medical negligence. So, when the parents started arguing with the hospital, they were served, and parental custody was removed from them. They\\\'ve been fighting this for over a year. Ironcially, both Glen Beck\\\'s The Blaze and the uber-liberal Daily Kos have written in support of the parents. This article is Catholic-oriented, and argues that above all else, the hospital and CPS have failed to allow the child to have her spiritual needs met. Not sure what the hospital chaplain has to say.

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2014/when-the-government-takes-your-children

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From what I\'ve read, I think there\'s more to the medical situation underlying the Pelletier case than meets the eye; and the fact that juvenile court proceedings are closed certainly isn\'t helping. The parents can say whatever they want about \"the system\", and the people in the know aren\'t legally allowed to comment.

That said: yeah, in a lot of situations judges and state agencies use the secrecy of juvie proceedings--and their near god-like control over the child\'s physical residence in conjunction with a parent\'s natural desperation to get the child back ASAP--to their advantage. I have seen a juvenile court judge here in Utah threaten to take a child away from his mother, unless the mother admitted that the father had, indeed, slapped the child. We could have fought it, sure--and in that time the two-year-old child would have started kindergarten, living away from his parents the entire time.

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I\\\'ve been following this story. I have an invisible chronic illness. I\\\'m appalled at Boston Children\\\'s Hospital. They would have served the child\\\'s best interests to work with her parents. That her health has deteriorated so drastically in the last 14 months while under the care of DCF says a lot about who was right about the diagnosis. She walked into Boston Children\\\'s and now she can\\\'t move her legs and is in a wheelchair. Then lets look at the other obvious physical systems, like the hair loss. Anyone with half a brain can see she is so much sicker now than she was when her parents had custody.

This whole thing just makes me sick.

DCF (in my experience) takes children from loving parents and leaves children at risk with abusive parents. My grandson was born with drugs in his system and DCF IGNORED that and let him go home with a mother on drugs. It took 17 months to get him out of there.

I agree with the articles author opinion that child abuse was not epidemic in the past.

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From what I\\\'ve read, I think there\\\'s more to the medical situation underlying the Pelletier case than meets the eye; and the fact that juvenile court proceedings are closed certainly isn\\\'t helping.

I thought the same thing. However according to the article below, this time everything to be known is known. It really is a matter of the hospital disagreed with the diagnosis the parents brought the child in for, knew they would resist the new diagnosis, and so filed a medical negligence charge with Child Protective Services. This article also points out that 80% of anonymous reports received by CPS prove unsubstantiated. 4 out of 5 families they visit are found with no actionable abuse. Nevertheless, those 4 families now have the cloud of accusation hanging over their head. Too many think, \"Where there is smoke there is fire.\"

It also appears that the judge decided to take away custody BECAUSE the parents challenged his gag order. He more or less said, \"Fine, it was unConstitutional. But now I\'ll find against you because you interfered with the placement process by violating my gag order.

My head was exploding more and more as I read the article!

http://articles.courant.com/2014-04-02/health/hc-pelletier-rulling-response-20140402_1_justina-boston-children-linda-pelletier

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I\'m thankful I\'m not in this situation. If I was, I will do everything in my power to bring my child home... and that includes going to WAR against anybody who will stop me. One month is too long to be patient with the legal system while my child lives away from her family\'s care.

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I\'m thankful I\'m not in this situation. If I was, I will do everything in my power to bring my child home... and that includes going to WAR against anybody who will stop me. One month is too long to be patient with the legal system while my child lives away from her family\'s care.

 

Kinda gotta agree here.

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In the interest of balance I am including this article, which gives something of a defense of the Boston Medical doctors:

 

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2014/04/justina_pelletier_s_mitochondrial_disease_boston_children_s_hospital_suspects.html

 

The bottom line seems to be that they believe there is a reasonable possiblity that the parents are intentionally subjecting their child to medical procedures because they have a psychological disorder--basically "hypochondria by proxy."  The disease the brought the child in for is the most common one misdiagnosed in these cases, and there were a couple of suspicious factors.  So, knowing that pulling the child from her parents was the most severe action they could take, but believing their diagnosis was more likely than not, they proceeded, under the belief that the family could be reunited if they were wrong, but the medical damage to the child from continued exposure to dangerous and unnecessary medical procedures could not be reversed.

 

I still contend that short of compelling proof, the parents are the parents, and when two possiblities are equally plausible, they get to make the call.

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In the interest of balance I am including this article, which gives something of a defense of the Boston Medical doctors:

 

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2014/04/justina_pelletier_s_mitochondrial_disease_boston_children_s_hospital_suspects.html

 

The bottom line seems to be that they believe there is a reasonable possiblity that the parents are intentionally subjecting their child to medical procedures because they have a psychological disorder--basically "hypochondria by proxy."  The disease the brought the child in for is the most common one misdiagnosed in these cases, and there were a couple of suspicious factors.  So, knowing that pulling the child from her parents was the most severe action they could take, but believing their diagnosis was more likely than not, they proceeded, under the belief that the family could be reunited if they were wrong, but the medical damage to the child from continued exposure to dangerous and unnecessary medical procedures could not be reversed.

 

I still contend that short of compelling proof, the parents are the parents, and when two possiblities are equally plausible, they get to make the call.

I have an "invisible" disease.  Mitochondrial disease is another invisible disease.  What that means is some doctors believe and some don't.  Those who don't believe diagnose a psych disorder and then all symptoms are ignored.  I was lucky.  I had good doctors who understood a patient could be in pain without a visible cause.  I have been active in online chronic pain communities for over 15 years.  I found the communities while looking for anything and everything I could about what I'm dealing with.  I have talked to scores of men and women who suffer for years with no relief because their doctor/s has decided he doesn't believe them.  Needless suffering.  

 

Twenty years ago JACHO (accreditation for hospitals) came out with new rules regarding the treatment of pain.  Attitudes started to change.  Pain is now considered a separate illness when it becomes chronic, but some doctors still don't believe.  If they can't see it, if they can't run a test, if they can't change it, then of course its all in the patient's head.

 

The fact that Justina's condition has deteriorated so significantly since being in State custody says a lot about the naysaying doctors and hospital.  

 

Its wrong to take a sick child from their parents.  Even if its the parents making the child sick.  I say that because the correct course of treatment is Education.  IF there really is neglect or abuse time will show it.  Medical abuse is rare because doctors usually don't buy into the diagnoses used to abuse.  In Justina's case the State and Hospital have been the abusers.

 

P.S. what bothers me most about psychiatric care is how much its grown in the last 30 years.  We now have ICD-9 codes for behaviors that aren't really a psychiatric illness.  Creating the ICD-9 codes is how psychiatrist and psychologists get paid when they can't find anything to get paid for.  This growth in psychiatric disorders (some of which aren't disorders) is a result of greed.   I realize that some of the "progress" is psychiatric care was needed, but in my opinion, we've swung too far the other way.

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I knew this story sounded familiar, a lot like this one: http://lds.net/forums/topic/48855-bring-baby-sammy-home/#entry715603

 

Looks like this is becoming a trend.

Sadly, this kind of thing is happening all across the country and the media is NOT reporting it.  Gag orders are part of the problem.  

 

The family is being attacked at every level and every front.  This is just one more.  I'm afraid we'll see more of this before it ends.

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Supporters of Justina are appealing to the Governor of Massachussetts.  He's apparently drunk the DCF Koolaid however--claiming that there is a history of neglect in the Pelletier home.  The problem is that his information seems bogus on the face of it.  Mass DCF has never been to the Pelletier home (in Connecticut).  This case is about alleged medical neglect, not home environment in general.  The governor appears to be talking out of both sides of his mouth though, because after this powerful public official accuses the parents of neglect, he says its the courts call, not his.

 

http://michaelgraham.com/deval-claims-there-was-neglect-in-the-home-of-justina-pelletier-is-he-lying/

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