Ms. Pelletier Before.The advocates and attorneys for the Pelletier family are missing the mark. When it comes to children and psychiatric medicine the State of Massachusetts does not have a good record.
Ms. Pelletier needs a her family. Her quality of life has diminished since being a ward of the state.
June 30, 2010
By KATIE HINMAN and KIMBERLY BROWN
It may look like (click here) any leafy New England campus, but inside one
Massachusetts school for special needs children, the method of teaching
at work is anything but ordinary.
The Boston-area's Judge Rotenberg Center
educates and treats enrollees ages 3 to adult, all of whom are
struggling with severe emotional, behavior, and psychiatric problems,
including autism-like disorders. And for about half of the 250 students
here, undesirable behavior means getting hooked up to a special machine
and administered an electric shock.
The skin shock treatment, used only after both a court and the student's
parents have approved, has drawn criticism for years. But after the
release of a recent study by Mental Disability Rights International, Rotenberg has come under the scrutiny of no less than the United Nations, which is calling the school's practices "torture."...
Genocopies of Mitochondrial Disease (click here)
Because mitochondria perform so many different functions in different tissues, there are literally hundreds of different mitochondrial diseases. Each disorder produces a spectrum of abnormalities that can be confusing to both patients and physicians in early stages of diagnosis. Because of the complex interplay between the hundreds of genes and cells that must cooperate to keep our metabolic machinery running smoothly, it is a hallmark of mitochondrial diseases that identical mtDNA mutations may not produce identical diseases. Genocopies are diseases that are caused by the same mutation but which may not look the same clinically.
Mitochondrial Disease became very controversial itself during the Bush Administration. There is significant evidence in Great Britain that a genetic treatment is effective in REVERSING the disease. Of course, under the Bush White House there was absolutely no genetic treatments allowed in the USA. I have to wonder if this is a continuation of that school of thought. However, the State of Massachusetts has a history of placing young people into institutions and then forgetting about them which allows bizarre treatment of them of which the United Nations has defined as torture.
Genocopies of Mitochondrial Disease (click here)
Because mitochondria perform so many different functions in different tissues, there are literally hundreds of different mitochondrial diseases. Each disorder produces a spectrum of abnormalities that can be confusing to both patients and physicians in early stages of diagnosis. Because of the complex interplay between the hundreds of genes and cells that must cooperate to keep our metabolic machinery running smoothly, it is a hallmark of mitochondrial diseases that identical mtDNA mutations may not produce identical diseases. Genocopies are diseases that are caused by the same mutation but which may not look the same clinically.
Mitochondrial Disease became very controversial itself during the Bush Administration. There is significant evidence in Great Britain that a genetic treatment is effective in REVERSING the disease. Of course, under the Bush White House there was absolutely no genetic treatments allowed in the USA. I have to wonder if this is a continuation of that school of thought. However, the State of Massachusetts has a history of placing young people into institutions and then forgetting about them which allows bizarre treatment of them of which the United Nations has defined as torture.
Boston.com
Staff / March 25, 2014
A judge ruled today that Justina Pelletier, (click here) a
Connecticut teen who is the subject of a heated custody dispute, will be
placed in the “permanent” custody of the Massachusetts Department of
Children and Families.
A report
from the Boston Globe said Massachusetts Juvenile Court Judge Joseph
Johnston awarded custody of Pelletier to the state. This means the
agency will get to “decide whether or when Pelletier should be returned
to her West Hartford, Conn., home.” The report also indicated that
Pelletier’s parents will not be allowed to appeal the decision until
summer.
Johnston’s ruling is in line with a previous
ruling that had kept Pelletier in the state’s temporary custody after a
dispute over the 15-year-old’s health and how it was being handled....Ms. Pellitier After.
A cornerstone to pediatric medicine is that the physician is treating the family as well as the child. It is why pediatric rooms in hospitals are frequently furnished with recliner chairs and a place to sleep. There is absolutely nothing preventing a court from ordering family therapy for a child that was doing relatively well at home. It is not uncommon for families to gather around a child that is challenged and seek help at highly regarded hospitals when they feel helpless and frustrated. Adding to the child's psychiatric disintegration by removing those they love and love them is not what I call effective.
Ms. Pellitier needs to be returned to the environment where she has done best and then with the family in tow attend counseling sessions where life planning can be engaged to bring her adulthood into focus.
