Justina Pelletier Video Message Begs Judge To Let Her Go Home
Justina Pelletier released a video message pleading with the judge in her custody case to let her go home. The Connecticut teen has been under the supervision of the Department of Children and Families (DCF) for nearly two years. Boston Children’s Hospital doctors disagreed with Justina Pelletier’s longstanding diagnosis and removed her from the custody of her parents.with the doctor’s diagnosis.
After the drastic change of events, Pelletier’s parents are currently permitted to visit her just once per week for a single hour and can make just two phone calls during that same time period. “It’s beyond any wildest nightmare that you could think of,” her father Lou Pelletier, told a local TV station. Lou Pelletier deemed the actions which has kept Justina from her home “kidnapping.” Before a local judge issued a gag order in the case, WTIC-TV, a local news station, was investigating decisions involving the custody of Justina Pelletier.
Justina Pelletier’s video message to the judge comes on the heels of a decision by DCF that the agency opposed the teen from going back home to live with her parents. In March Judge Joseph Johnston gave the state permanent custody of the young woman.
Excerpt from the video message from Pelletier, with a voice filled with sorrow, recorded for the judge in the custody case:
“All I really want is to be with my family and friends. It’s all I really want is to be with my family back home. You can do it, you’re the one that’s judging this. Please let me go home. Judge Johnston and Governor Patrick, please, right now, let me go home, right now. I need to be home with my family. Please, right now, please let me go home right now… right now.”
The Connecticut teenager was diagnosed with mitochondrial disease several years ago. The condition is a genetic disorder that often causes weakness and the loss of muscle coordination, as previously reported by The Inquisitr. But she lived a normal life, according to her family.
Last February, Justina was hospitalized for the flu. After being admitted to Boston Children’s Hospital she was set to be examined by her specialist. Before the anticipated doctor could see Justina, a different team of doctors arrived and questioned the original diagnosis and declared an entirely different condition was impacting the young woman. Linda Pelletier, the girl’s mother, said that the new crew of doctors informed them that Justina had somatoform disorder. If the woman’s statements are accurate, Boston Children’s Hospital staffers immediately called the state’s Department of Children and Family, and the state refused to let the parents leave with their child. Somatoform disorder is a mental, not a physical illness.
Linda and Lou Pelletier were ultimately escorted from the Boston Children’s Hospital by the security staff. Four days after they took their daughter to the hospital to be seen for the flu, they lost custody. The distraught parents have been fighting to regain their rights and bring their daughter home ever since. West Hartford Psychologist Dean Hokanson told the local media that the Pelletier family was being accused of “too actively” pursuing health care matters for their daughter.
A Boston Children’s Hospital report stated that that Justina exhibited the signs of “regressive behavior” and added that both parents had shown “resistance” to the new recommended treatment plans. Lou and Linda Pelletier reportedly told the staff at the hospital that their daughter’s care and medications were upon the recommendation of other reputable physicians she had been seeing for many years. One of Justina Pelletier’s doctors is Tufts Medical Center Specialist Dr. Mark Korson. If Judge Johnston does agree to return Justina Pelletier to her parents, they ill likely be subjected to state monitoring, according to the Boston Globe.
