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In reply to the discussion: We failed her. Big time. Boston Children’s was experimenting on Justina Pelletier, [View all]Savannahmann
(3,891 posts)The courts would not allow testimony of Justina's primary care physician. The court would not accept evidence of the genetic condition existing in her siblings. The court heard the shrink from Boston Children's, and promptly sided with them. The parents were accused of child abuse by overmedication.
So following the directions of a medical professional entrusted with the care of your child in the administration of medicine is overmedication according to the Boston Family Services. That right there should have sent alarm bells ringing around the nation. They were not accusing the doctor of malpractice. They were not even talking to the Doctor. They were saying the parents were bad for treating a diagnosed condition in their daughter. The daughter was crazy because she believed she had this condition.
What I find really interesting, is when they got Justina in the psych ward, the reports given to the Court were that Justina was showing signs of improvement after being taken off of her meds. She was doing so much better now we heard from Boston Children's.
But remember, the charge of child abuse was centered on getting medical attention for the child. So providing medical care is child abuse? They weren't starving the girl, nor beating her. They weren't setting up the cameras and filming a bunch of dirty old men doing unspeakable things. The family was going to great lengths to make sure she got the care that her medical provider at home, one who had spent years caring for the girl, said to do.
Now, that may not be government overreach, but it it certainly troubling. In order for the court to make an informed decision, at the minimum, they should have allowed her primary care physicians and the doctors overseeing her case from home testify. The only people allowed to testify were Justina's parents, and the experts from Boston Children's, and Department of Family Services. At a bare minimum, you would agree that this is a massive travesty, and a serious case of misconduct.
Because if following the advice of a medical professional with years of familiarity with the case, and the patient, instead of someone who just met the girl, is abuse. Then the ACA is the greatest crime against humanity since the Holocaust. Imagine all those people getting and following medical advice from their family doctors. The horror. The horror.
Now, obviously I don't think the ACA is a crime against humanity. Obviously I think that going to your Doctor and getting advice and a treatment plan is a good thing. I think more people being able to see a doctor is a wonderful situation. I've called on programs to help more people become Doctors to address the shortage of medical professionals. This particular case highlights a problem though. Not content to offer a differing diagnosis, the system in Massachusetts created a national firestorm by abusing the laws of the state intended to protect children.
Now, if you are a doctor, and you disagree with a diagnosis, then you have a responsibility to advise the patient, and if the patient is a minor, their legal guardian of your concerns. If the patient, or their guardian disagree with your diagnosis, and choose another accepted medical treatment plan, that is not abuse. That is the right of a free people to choose the medical treatment they believe has the best chance of success. Doctors are not gods. And as demonstrated in this case, the courts are not wise or just. It was an abomination. It was a travesty, and it was if not overreach, malfeasance. If there was justice in the case, The state Department of family services, the state, and Boston Children's hospital would all be bankrupted to pay the family enormous sums of money in apology. The Doctor should be barred from practicing medicine ever again. Because he was obviously wrong. The way we know he was wrong is that Justina is confined to a wheelchair instead of bouncing around happily now that she's off her medications and treated according to his psychiatric diagnosis instead of medically. If there was Justice, he would be living in a cardboard box under an overpass cleaning windshields of passing cars for loose change. If as reports suggest, Justina has been in pain this entire time because of his actions, then he should spend life in a maximum security prison without the possibility of parole for torturing her. He is obviously dangerous to his patients, and god alone knows what suffering his other patients who have medical conditions that are according to him all in their heads are enduring right now.