‘Please let me go home’: Teen ‘kidnapped’ by doctors and is at the center of custody battle between the state and her parents records video pleading for release

10 Jun, 2014 by Tiffiny Ruegner

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16 months ago Boston Children’s Hospital disagreed with a diagnosis that Tufts Medical gave to a teenage girl. Boston Med doctors believed the girls illness was in her head or psychological and courts ruled in Boston’s favor against the girl’s parents and primary care. The parents lost custody of the girl and now she’s released a video pleading the judge and Governor to release her back to her parents because she just ‘wants to go home’.

Lou and Lin Pelletier lost custody of their 16-year-old daughter Justina when doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital diagnosed her with a psycholgoical disorder. She was finally released from Boston Children’s Hospital early this year, where she was only allowed to visit with her parents for an hour weekly. However, Justina wasn’t allowed to go home and has since been living at a residential treatment facility in Connecitcut.

On Sunday, she posted a passionate plea to Gov Deval Patrick and Judge Josephy Johnston to just let her go home where she can be with her friends and family.

‘All I really want to be with is my family and friends,’ Justina said. ‘Right now – you can do it. You are the one that’s judging this. Please let me go home Judge Johnson and Gov. Patrick please right now, please let me go home right now. I need to be home with my family. I know you can do it. Please right now, I need to be home right now.’

Mr Pelletier says he didn’t force his daughter to record the video, and that it was an idea she had and created with one of her sisters. The Pelletier’s trying ordeal began 16 months ago when they submitted their daughter for evaluation at Tufts University hospital. However, doctors at Children’s hospital took a different view and concluded that her physical symptoms were primarily caused by psychological disorders.

After the conflicting diagnosis, doctors allegedly gave Justina’s parents the bewildering and heart-breaking news that they wouldn’t be able to take their daughter home. Speaking of the moment their daughter was taken away from her, the teenager’s mother said: ”They came in, and they said we cannot take Justina out of the hospital.
‘They called DCF (Department for Children and Families).

‘They said Justina had ‘somatoform disorder,’ a form of mental illness that is characterized by physical symptoms.’
Linda and her husband Lou Pelletier were escorted out of the hospital by security, and within the short space of four days they had lost custody of their beloved daughter.

Do you think doctors should have the power to override the family’s medical decisions for their children?

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