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   Justina Pelletier's legal nightmare should frighten all parents   
      
    Dr. Keith Ablow   
   By Dr. Keith Ablow   
   Published June 17, 2014   
   FoxNews.com   
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   A Massachusetts judge ordered Tuesday that 16-year-old Justina Pelletier be   
   returned to her Connecticut family. His ruling ended a 15-month odyssey that I   
   believe showed that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and Boston Children's   
   Hospital were willing    
   to disregard the rights of her parents and, in essence legally "kidnap" her.    
      
   "We are stunned," Lou Pelletier, her dad, told me minutes ago by phone.   
   "Justina called us with the news herself. We just want to thank everyone who   
   helped us get our daughter home."   
      
      
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   The Justina Pelletier case gives us a glimpse of what the state and a rogue   
   hospital can do to any child and any parents who disagree with their   
   "treatment plan."   
   Back in February, 2013 the Connecticut teen went to Children's Hospital for a   
   consultation to complement her medical care at Boston's New England Medical   
   Center (NEMC).  NEMC doctors were treating Justina for mitochondrial disease,   
   a little-understood    
   physical illness affecting energy production inside cells that is believed to   
   cause muscle weakness, among many other symptoms.  But the Children's Hospital   
   doctors disagreed. They claimed Justina was psychiatrically ill, had no real   
   physical problems,    
   and was actually suffering with somatoform disorder -- a condition in which   
   underlying, unresolved psychological problems make someone act physically ill.   
      
   When Justina's parents rejected that interpretation of her condition,   
   Children's Hospital refused to release her. Ultimately, they went to court and   
   were able to convince a judge to award permanent custody of Justina to the   
   Massachusetts Department of    
   Children and Families (DCF).   
      
   Let's reduce that story to its basic truth:  Boston Children's Hospital and   
   the Commonwealth of Massachusetts refused to return a child to her family   
   because they believed she should be treated as mentally ill, not physically   
   ill, even though doctors at    
   an esteemed Boston teaching hospital (NEMC) disagreed and her parents wanted   
   to have the NEMC doctors keep treating her.   
      
   And, guess what?  After all the "expert" psychiatric care provided on a locked   
   psychiatry unit at Children's Hospital for Justina, after well over a year   
   being separated from her parents and sisters and her pets, she remains in a   
   wheelchair.     
      
   After all that time and all that psychiatric care, the consensus is now that   
   she suffers with physical symptoms, just like NEMC physicians always said she   
   did.     
      
   After the "kidnapping" of Justina by Children's Hospital and the Commonwealth   
   of Massachusetts, everyone now agrees she can just go home.   
      
   There but for the Grace of God go all of us. The Justina Pelletier case gives   
   us a glimpse of what the state and a rogue hospital can do to any child, and   
   any parents, who disagree with their "treatment plan."   
      
   Remember, Boston Children's is the same hospital that tells parents to get out   
   of the way and "follow their children" into gender reassignment, even when   
   their parents have profound misgivings about whether that is the best course   
   of treatment for their    
   sons and daughters.   
      
   And just think about all the complicated cases of Lyme Disease that have a   
   host of nebulous symptoms and may or may not be diagnosed by blood tests.     
      
   Think of all the cases of fibromyalgia and chronic streptococcal infection and   
   food allergies that can trigger behavioral and emotional symptoms.     
      
   Well, any child suffering with any of those could run into the wrong doctor   
   (at least in Massachusetts, at least at Boston Children's Hospital) and end up   
   labeled psychiatrically ill.  And if you, as a father or mother don't like   
   that, even if stellar    
   academic doctors at another hospital back you up, then you, too, could have   
   your child taken off to a locked psychiatric unit or group home for a year or   
   more.     
      
   This is the kind of government intrusion and violation of parental rights that   
   can happen in a state in which Barack Obama's good friend Deval Patrick, is   
   governor.     
      
   Remember, this is the same governor who threatened to send citizens of the   
   Commonwealth to jail if they drove during a recent snow storm.     
      
   Jail. Imagine.   
      
   Now, Justina will be free. And, among other things, what she will be free to   
   do is to sue the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and Boston Children's Hospital   
   and those doctors who insisted all her symptoms were "in her head" for   
   violating her rights and for    
   malpractice. That wasn't possible until now because she has been in the   
   custody of the Department of Children and Families.    
      
   Does that sound like a conflict of interest to you -- holding a child against   
   her will, and the will of her parents, when you know that the moment she is   
   released you'll be sued for what you have done? You bet it does.   
      
   Think about potentially $25 or $50 or $100 million in damages paid out by the   
   taxpayers of Massachusetts and malpractice insurers by the time this is over.   
   And, although that will be money well-spent to deter power hungry politicians   
   and doctors from "   
   kidnapping" my kids and your kids and essentially experimenting on them,   
   according to whatever medical theory is in vogue at their hospital, it will   
   never compensate Justina Pelletier and her family for the attempt to destroy   
   her and her family's dignity,   
    liberty and self-determination.   
      
   This time the attempt failed. The truth won out. But, trust me on this: They   
   will try again, and again.     
      
      
   Dr. Keith Ablow is a psychiatrist and member of the Fox News Medical A-Team.   
   Dr. Ablow can be reached at info@keithablow.com.   
      
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