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Justina Pelletier Sues Boston Children's Hospital and doctor for medical malpractice ...

natasa778

Senior Member
Messages
1,774
Justina Pelletier Sues Boston Children's Hospital and Alice Newton for Civil Rights Violations and Medical Malpractice

At the news conference, Justina Pelletier and her family will be sharing as well as members of her legal team.

Justina was wrongfully and unjustly removed from her family by Boston Children's Hospital and the State of Massachusetts in 2013 which ignited a national debate as well as a media and political firestorm concerning parental rights, medical abuse and the overreach of courts and governmental agencies.

Justina is being represented by the KJC Law Firm in Boston, Massachusetts.

...
Lou Pelletier, the father of Justina comments;

  • "It's time for parents and children not to be fearful of going to a hospital with a complicated medical history and worrying that their children might be taken because they don't agree with the diagnosis."
...
The KJC Law Firm states;


  • "Lou, Linda, and Justina Pelletier, who ignited national debate and a media firestorm when Justina was, at age fourteen, wrongfully taken from her family by Boston Children's Hospital and officials from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have served a 35 page complaint on Boston Children's Hospital.

    "The law suit alleges that Alice Newton, M.D., Jurriaan Peters, M.D. and Simona Bujourneau, M.D. committed medical malpractice and violated Justina's and her parents' civil rights when they sought to have her parents' custody rights terminated after the parents refused to agree to Children's Hospital's radical 'treatment plan' for their child."
 

*GG*

senior member
Messages
6,389
Location
Concord, NH
That phrase sounds familiar from somewhere. Time to call a spade a spade. Best of luck to them. All we need is for a few doctors to be held to account to make others who want to abuse their position by bullying sick children and their families think twice.

More than children, adults have civil rights as well. And suffer at the hands of employers as well!
I have documented disability, I have rights!

GG
 

Snowdrop

Rebel without a biscuit
Messages
2,933
I certainly hope they not only get their day in court but that it gets lots of media attention.
And they end with getting a huge money settlement.

The fact that we're hearing about it though means that either the Pelletiers turned down a closed settlement or the hospital thinks they can win the case. Although even if they think they didn't do wrong I believe the usual deal is to try and settle so as not to shine any media attention on the hospital.

And finally, completely tongue in cheek, I notice the P's are not being represented by Crane, Poole and Schmit (tv series--Boston Legal)
I just had to say that.
 
Messages
5
To force medical treatment on someone without their consent is assault, pure and simple. A child's right to self determination is held in trust by her parents. I don't always agree with CS Lewis, but I couldn't have said this better!

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”
C S Lewis
 

alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
Bertrand Russell made the point that much of the tragedy in Africa is due to very moral people making decisions about how to help African society without understanding the issues. Good intentions, but the outcomes of changes, including crop changes, include mass starvation and death.

To hold a superior attitude, one really needs extensive and sound evidence, at the very least. Psychiatric diagnoses are always, to date, without definitive diagnostic markers. Forcing treatment on someone, based on even an educated guess, is in my view both immoral and unethical. It is up to a court of law to determine if its unlawful in a given circumstance. I think we need laws clarified so its always unlawful. This is largely separate from putting someone in safe care. Safety is via providing essential things - freedom from abuse (but psych patients are sometimes abused while in care), food, water, basic medical care and a safe place to rest and sleep. You don't create safety, but engage risk, if you guess what is wrong and then try an hypothetical unproven treatment.
 

natasa778

Senior Member
Messages
1,774
Latest announcement (30 August 2016)

KJC Law Firm is pleased to announce another significant victory for Justina Pelletier against Dr. Alice Newton and others. A medical malpractice tribunal has confirmed that KJC Law Firm set forth a viable claim of medical malpractice against Dr. Newton and her colleagues. The complaint alleges that they misdiagnosed Justina Pelletier, cut her off from all communication with her long-time treating doctors, and falsely accused her parents of abusing her...ultimately resulting in her wrongul imprisonment in a locked psychaitric ward and other facilities for over one year. This is a huge development in the law and the fight for the rights of parents, patients, and even doctors. The case will now proceed through the long process of discovery in order to prepare for trial. Congratulations to the Pelletier family!
 

valentinelynx

Senior Member
Messages
1,310
Location
Tucson

Isn't this a common problem: we "look good" while feeling at death's door? How often do we hear, "You are looking really good - you must be getting better!" or "You can't be sick, you look fine."

When I go out in public, I make an effort to look "good". Doesn't represent my typical condition.

PS That's weird - don't know how the quote got truncated to say just, "look." But, I guess it hones in on the point! :)
 

Little Bluestem

All Good Things Must Come to an End
Messages
4,930
Isn't this a common problem: we "look good" while feeling at death's door? How often do we hear, "You are looking really good - you must be getting better!" or "You can't be sick, you look fine."
You will notice that I qualified it with "considering what she has been through". And what she has been through is horrendous. Coming at the time in her life that it did, it could have long lasting effects. I hope that very harsh judgement are returned against the people involve and that it brings about some much needed changes in the medical community as a whole.

That many months back I cannot be sure what I was thinking, but I would guess that I was trying to convince myself that she had not been totally destroyed by it all. Young people can be resilient. I am wishing the very best for Justina and her family.