BACKGROUND: "The malpractice lawsuit case her family has brought against Boston's 'Children's Hospital' - is under way. As the Boston Globe reports...."Justina Pelletier was 14 in 2013 when she landed in a locked psychiatric unit at Boston Children’s Hospital, temporarily a ward of the state. Her parents stood accused of medical child abuse as they clashed with the hospital’s doctors over her diagnosis and care......... (Justine, now 21, and her parents accuse Children’s and its providers of ignoring in 2013 the treatment advice of her doctors at Tufts Medical Center, where Justina was being treated for mitochondrial disease, a group of rare genetic disorders that affects how cells produce energy. The family also accuses the hospital and its providers of violating their civil rights by barring the Pelletiers from seeing their daughter, and by warning the state would take custody of Justina if they didn’t consent to the doctors’ treatment plan.)"
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Linda Pelletier tended to fixate on her belief that none of the hospital staff understood her daughter’s condition, which she insisted was mitochondrial disease, or believed her pain was real, doctors wrote at the time. Despite medical records to the contrary, Linda Pelletier insisted she did not discharge her daughter from Connecticut Children’s Hospital against medical advice only to turn around and return with her a day later, prompting the visit to Boston Children’s Hospital. “I believe that is incorrect,” Linda Pelletier said. “I always did what they told me to do.” When testimony turned toward Feb. 14, 2013, the day the Pelletiers were escorted off hospital property and told not to return, Linda Pelletier’s tone turned testy and tearful. “I was in shock that the whole thing happened the way it did," she said. After demanding that their daughter be discharged that day, Lou and Linda Pelletier summoned police to the hospital. Linda Pelletier said as many as 15 uniformed guards descended upon the unit, with five hovering over her and her daughter. When pressed under cross-examination about the exact number, she said she couldn’t be sure. There were at least 10 guards, she said. She couldn’t count them all. “I’m telling you the truth. It was a lot," Linda Pelletier said. “It was overwhelming. It was a really hard time. I was very overwhelmed and very hurt."
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GIST: "Depending
on the witness, Linda Pelletier has been portrayed either as a
persistent, attentive and intensely devoted caregiver to her sickly
daughter or a dominating, disruptive parent out to dictate the girl’s
medical diagnoses and treatment. On
Wednesday, three weeks into the Pelletiers’ closely watched medical
malpractice case against Boston Children’s Hospital, jurors finally
heard from Justina Pelletier’s mother. As
relations between Pelletier’s parents and her medical team at the
pediatric hospital grew increasingly volatile and bitter, doctors in
2011 began to believe that Linda and Lou Pelletier’s decision-making and judgment were not in their daughter’s best interest. The state Department of Children and Families stepped in, took custody of their 14-year-old daughter, and held her in a locked psychiatric unit at the hospital. She remained there for the better part of a year."
In
her testimony Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court, Linda Pelletier
disputed much of what doctors had written, described, or quoted her as
saying before and during her daughter’s stay. The
Pelletiers are suing the hospital and four doctors and other caregivers
with whom they butted heads over their daughter’s diagnosis and
treatment. After
the forced separation from her parents, Justina Pelletier, now 21,
remains emotionally scarred and fearful of doctors, they allege. The
hospital’s neurologist, psychologist, psychiatrist, and a former
pediatrician there were negligent in ignoring treatment plans from
Justina Pelletier’s previous doctors at Tufts Medical Center, the
lawsuit says. Linda
Pelletier testified that she did not discharge her daughter from past
hospitals against medical advice. She did not refuse inpatient
psychiatric care, she said. Nor did she tell a hospital social worker
that she was overwhelmed caring for her elderly mother and would be
unable to care for her daughter at home “in her current state.” Doctors
noted that when Linda Pelletier was present, her daughter’s condition
would seemingly worsen — she would become more infantile and
introverted, urinate on herself, and complain of pain.
Linda
Pelletier tended to fixate on her belief that none of the hospital
staff understood her daughter’s condition, which she insisted was
mitochondrial disease, or believed her pain was real, doctors wrote at
the time. Despite
medical records to the contrary, Linda Pelletier insisted she did not
discharge her daughter from Connecticut Children’s Hospital against
medical advice only to turn around and return with her a day later,
prompting the visit to Boston Children’s Hospital. “I believe that is incorrect,” Linda Pelletier said. “I always did what they told me to do.” When
testimony turned toward Feb. 14, 2013, the day the Pelletiers were
escorted off hospital property and told not to return, Linda Pelletier’s
tone turned testy and tearful. “I was in shock that the whole thing happened the way it did," she said. After demanding that their daughter be discharged that day, Lou and Linda Pelletier summoned police to the hospital. Linda Pelletier said as many as 15 uniformed guards descended upon the unit, with five hovering over her and her daughter. When
pressed under cross-examination about the exact number, she said she
couldn’t be sure. There were at least 10 guards, she said. She couldn’t
count them all. “I’m
telling you the truth. It was a lot," Linda Pelletier said. “It was
overwhelming. It was a really hard time. I was very overwhelmed and very
hurt."
Her pinched face reddened as tears turned into sobs, silent at first, then audible.
“I don’t know," Linda Pelletier testified. "It hurt me, and it hurt my daughter.”
She held her face in both hands, shoulders heaving, before leaving the stand
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/02/05/metro/justina-pelletiers-mother-takes-stand-medical-malpractice-trial/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
