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Another Medical Kidnapping

Ren

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Messages
385
Just noticed the following on Wiki's "biopsychosocial" entry. It's the final sentence under the Criticism section:

"The Tufts psychiatry professor and author S. Nassir Ghaemi considers Engel's [biopsychosocial] model to be anti-humanistic and advocates the use of less eclectic, less generic, and less vague alternatives, such as William Osler’s medical humanism or Karl Jaspers’ method-based psychiatry."

I believe Osler's Web is named for William Osler (though I just received a copy of the book and haven't yet begun to read it.) - Just wondered what significance there might be for this tradition at Tufts, where Justina was of course first treated vs. what seems to be the philosophical stance at Harvard.
 

taniaaust1

Senior Member
Messages
13,054
Location
Sth Australia
A bit of a different case but sounds like it could be another medical kidnapping which there is also a petition out for. This mother has had all 3 of her children taken over a child who had been diagnosed elsewhere with having a bone disorder but then coming across different doctors who didnt believe the diagnoses so accused parents of abusing the child http://www.thepetitionsite.com/436/034/495/please-help-bring-my-babies-home/

I really think there may be a lot more of this going on then we realise (Ive come across so many poor doctors missing my diagnoses that its not hard to believe at all that there may be a lot of doctors getting things wrong with children).
 

Ren

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Messages
385
I wonder about the date on the above petition - bc there's a section which states, "AUTHOR: L. - (U.S.A.) SUBMITTED: Monday, June 11, 2007" and which talks about issues with Oklahoma, but at the end of this info is a note from "April" who I understood to be the mother who started the petition. Maybe she's just referencinig Oklahoma's track record though?

This about.com piece on abuse withinOklahoma's DHS (which I only skimmed) has a comment by an April Messner, May 2013:http://adoption.about.com/b/2008/04...-child-abuse-within-foster-or-group-homes.htm

Would be good to have more details on the story behind the petition.

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The documentary I mentioned earlier but couldn't recall the name of is "Kids for Cash." I haven't seen it though. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal
 
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taniaaust1

Senior Member
Messages
13,054
Location
Sth Australia
The documentary I mentioned earlier but couldn't recall the name of is "Kids for Cash." I haven't seen it though. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal

Wow.. its hard to believe that that much corruption went on.

What's this world coming too :( . I guess corrupt people aim for places of high power and probably get it throu corrupt means. Probably lots of corrupt judges out there.
 

leela

Senior Member
Messages
3,290
Conneticut senator (finally) speaks out, yay:
“[W]e see no reason for the Connecticut Department of Children and Families to involve itself in a case which has been so thoroughly examined to so little effect… This distressing story should end with Justina at home in the care of her parents, and we hope you will not delay that resolution.”
http://www.lifenews.com/2014/03/06/...or-releasing-justina-pelletier-to-her-family/

And the dad continues to ride the sorry asses of these agencies' minions:
“We want [the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families] to be out of our lives,” said Lou Pelletier, speaking publicly for the first time since a gag order was lifted in the case. “I don’t care whether it’s Connecticut, Massachusetts. . . . Make them go away. They’ve done nothing but harm.”
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/20...connecticut/hmflH1LIQITxrTf6UwbeGJ/story.html


It's disgusting all the finger pointing...BCH says "it was DCF"; DCF says "it was the judge". What will the judge say?!
 
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leela

Senior Member
Messages
3,290
http://www.madinamerica.com/2014/03/discussion-justina-pelletier-boston-childrens-hospital/
David R. DeMaso, MD, is the head of psychiatry at BCH. He is also a professor at Harvard, and is a member of Harvard’s Psychiatry Department Executive Committee. He is evidently highly regarded at the University, and has his own Harvard Catalyst page. There’s a tab on this page labeled “Similar People,” and one of the people listed as “similar” to Dr. DeMaso is our old friend Joseph Biederman, MD, the eminent inventor of pediatric bipolar disorder. This is the bogus diagnosis that legitimized the prescribing of neuroleptic drugs to children as young as two years old for temper tantrums. Even some psychiatrists spoke out against this spurious and destructive activity, but the practice continues. The fact that Dr. DeMaso would allow Dr. Biederman’s name to remain on his Similar People tab seems noteworthy. There is also a “connections” page on Harvard Catalyst, listing three publications co-authored by Dr. DeMaso and Dr. Biederman.

Dr. Biederman is on record as promising Johnson & Johnson a positive result for their drug Risperdal if they would fund his study. Why would any reputable physician allow someone like that to remain on his “Similar People” tab?

What I cannot fathom is that insurance paid for this fiasco? People get denied life-saving things all the time by their insurance in "regular" medicine...why on earth did they not just refuse it, especially based on the fact that she had a history of mito disease at Tufts? It is absolutely *bizarre* this dogged deference to psychiatry that has *zero* evidence for its reality or efficacy.
 

Ren

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Messages
385
Re insurance, I can only think that this and other such cases are played out to establish precedent, which will prevent funds being spent on biological conditions in the future.

I don't want to say "save money" bc I believe this "saved money" ends up in fat-cat pockets and/or in government/socialized systems is used to fund social or science agendas which are considered "more important" and "for the greater good."

Or perhaps no money is truly saved, as patients are harmed (at "best") by negligent care practices and then spend years fighting claims against the State. I suppose such legal battles create lots of State jobs though. And of course, many sick people don't have money for legal assistance - and/or die ("naturally" or by suicide) or give up before they can win the fight. (US vets: "Deny, deny until you die." / Canadian vets: "Delay, deny, die.")

Someone posted a great quote (IMO) on the occupycfs.com blog recently: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” - Upton Sinclair.

I believe ego is involved as well, as (many - not all of course) competitive academics want to preserve and flaunt their particular narrative.

And power must factor in there as well - as a psychiatric diagnosis can be used to deny rights, lock people up, take their children away, etc. Lots of hall monitors out there just waiting to enforce something, anything.

No one would accept this as reasonable treatment for somone with cancer. But if someone can be labeled with a psychiatric disease or an infectious disease, then "the herd" freaks out and makes demands of government - which can probably be government's worst nightmare. Plus the herd wants to be safe, and so is willing to sacrifice others if "experts" / government says the others are dangerous.

That's my answer, then: power/control, ego, greed.
 
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taniaaust1

Senior Member
Messages
13,054
Location
Sth Australia
I wonder about the date on the above petition - bc there's a section which states, "AUTHOR: L. - (U.S.A.) SUBMITTED: Monday, June 11, 2007" and which talks about issues with Oklahoma, but at the end of this info is a note from "April" who I understood to be the mother who started the petition. Maybe she's just referencinig Oklahoma's track record though?

This about.com piece on abuse withinOklahoma's DHS (which I only skimmed) has a comment by an April Messner, May 2013:http://adoption.about.com/b/2008/04...-child-abuse-within-foster-or-group-homes.htm

Would be good to have more details on the story behind the petition.

---------

The documentary I mentioned earlier but couldn't recall the name of is "Kids for Cash." I haven't seen it though. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal

The petition of mother who has had her kids taken away cause one has a medical condition http://www.thepetitionsite.com/436/034/495/please-help-bring-my-babies-home/ is a recent current petition if you look at the dates when people started signing it. I was confused by the other part too at first but then realised the part which is quoted is info published in 2007 which backs up her petition and why she thinks what has happpened to her is happening.
 

taniaaust1

Senior Member
Messages
13,054
Location
Sth Australia
We need people sueing big money for the mistakes being done in these cases to stop this from going on or to make sure higher depts slam the others (fine them or whattever) for this kind of thing going on.

I found out today that the equal opportunity comissioner thinks there may be discrimination case against my states disabilty service regards of how Ive been treated so a hearing now is looking likely and should be enough evidence there for the case to be won. Thing is many parts of my case cant go ahead (complaints against other gov depts) as I left my complaints to the high up gov levels too long (eg Centrelink could of got into big trouble in my case by the equal opportunity board for all the knockbacks I got due to me having "ME/CFS", when I was severely sick (assessing someone fit to work when they cant even stay seated at an appointment and is on the floor, is terribly wrong, so is refusing that persons sickness certificates from their doctors!! Forcing a person to drive when they are far too sick too do so so cars end up being smashed up..very wrong too.... but I didnt complain to equal opportunity commissioner in time (apparently only 12mths here to put in a complaint to equal opportunity board).

Sadly I was too sick to do so and have been struggling to keep up with things for years so Centrelink has now got away with the abuse they did to me.

Its hard as people also arent informed of the right channels to go throu to... so what energy you have gets taking up in other routes going round and round in circles.
...........

Please all, if you are being badly treated by gov. services no matter in the world you are, try real hard to get your complaints in offically, its the only way we are going to stop the ill treatment and bullshit which goes on around our less well known illnesses. We need to start going throu legal channels.
 

Ren

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Messages
385
Re taniaaus1 (post 130) above - Well said and so true. I saw the following quote some time ago, attributed to Mae West: “I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it.”

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Edit: I wanted to add that I recently stumbled upon mention of a 2003 case where a child (Ryan Baldwin) with ME/CFS in North Carolina (US) was taken from his parents.The comment I read linked to this (out-of-date) page: http://www.bringingryanhome.com/

I searched PR and found one brief mention and link to the Baldwin case in 2012 - but I'm sorry I can't read everything at this time. I don't know what the current outcome for the Baldwin family has been. I just wanted to share the name, to add to the awareness of such cases/injustices.
 
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Ren

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Messages
385
I have an additional question/thought:

If it's more difficult to prove that an adult should receive forced treatment, are (some) psychiatrists then using children to establish certain diagnoses (like SSD) - since children can be more easily preyed up by the system - and once such diagnoses are established within this realm, they can then be more easily transferreed upon adults?

It's extremely sick, but it wouldn't surprise me if some such strategy existed - all "for the greater good." Such behavior would have to be rationalized in some manner, I suppose.
 

Ren

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Messages
385
I feel guilty somehow for even allowing such a terrible thought to enter my mind. But if I've thought of it, surely others have too. I probably should have worded it differently though - more neutrally - and asked what checks and balances, if any, exist in the system to prevent/impede this type of exploitation/maneuvering.

I'm not sure what search terms would be best to explore this issue, but one phrase I used was "psychiatrists target children" which brought up links to a non-profit, Alliance for Human Research Protection (AHRP)*.

Maybe the ME/CFS community could work with this group at some future time to help build safeguards to better prevent children (and adults) with ME/CFS from being abused, such as with Karina Hansen. (And for that matter - is Karina being used as a bridge between the child and adult world, like the young woman in England - Sophia.) Just a thought. I searched PR and there are two posts, I believe, from a few years ago that mention the Alliance for Human Research Protection. Perhaps it's good to mention their name just to keep it current and in mind.

And for all the "badness", it's good to know there's one more group of individuals out there who care and who are fighting a good fight. It's just hard to see from where we're sitting sometimes I guess - I have to remind myself of this. Best, to all.

*http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/472/108/
 

Dreambirdie

work in progress
Messages
5,569
Location
N. California
I saw the Dr Phil show yesterday. He did a great job with it. I hope it helps get Justina home.

And I hope that everyone involved in her medical imprisonment has their medical licenses revoked and ends up serving a long jail term for what they have done to that poor girl. Gloria Allred should get her hands on this case and nail them all.
 

leela

Senior Member
Messages
3,290
I just learned of friends in the NY metro area with a teenage daughter who has anorexia. They narrowly missed having this happen to them.
They brought their child who has been being treated for some time by her own medical team for anorexia in to a major hospital during a health crisis and the people there tried to section her. The parents refused so the hospital called DCF.

They still have the child at home thank god, but now they have this hideous agency on their case--just for making their own informed medical decision. On top of that, the mother is under treatment for cancer, and the father had taken a month and a half off work to care for everyone.

There are no words.
 
Messages
15,786
These situations are so impossible. If this is allowed to continue, parents will be afraid to bring their children to hospitals risking the well being of the child. This has to stop.
I'm certainly not as communicative with my GP as I would be if sectioning wasn't even a possibility. She's a decent one, despite knowing next to nothing about ME/CFS, but I just see no reason to take the chance. Even if the odds of it happening are tiny, the consequences could be catastrophic.