<p>Absolutely awful! Not to mention really awful for the young girl who now has the been diagnosed for the whole world to see with a mental health issue, and who may have only a body health issue. Given the rampant discrimination against people with mental health issues, and the reluctance of colleges to accept students with mental health issues… awful. And those poor parents. It reminds me of the days when mothers of kids with mental health issues were accused of causing those issues by withholding affection or being “cold”. Brrrr. I really feel for her parents, and the whole family. Just awful!</p>
<p>Wow this is really mind boggling. Not sure what to make of it. I do think it is a bit telling though that Flores, who was her doctor at Tufts, didn’t intervene on behalf of the family immediately. After all, she was HIS patient for years. Did he suspect something all along? If he didn’t then you would think he would have seen her as soon as she was admitted. She was transferred to Children’s specifically to see Flores. How did these other doctors get involved? And I do not believe Children’s can legally prevent a doctor from seeing his own patient. Something is amiss here.</p>
<p>Anyway, Children’s is doing themselves no favors with these strong arm legal tactics, effectively taking a child’s care out of the hands of parents. Another sister has this disorder so it is understandable that the parents would be extremely stressed. I would think long and hard before bringing any child of mine to Children’s, if it is this easy for them to take complete control of a child’s medical care and commit them to a psychiatric ward. IF the facts of this story are correct, this is the worst possible scenario for this child.</p>
<p>Children’s Hospital has such a wonderful rep that it’s hard to believe it has behaved as despicably as it is portrayed in these articles. On the other hand, the Boston Globe has a good rep too.</p>
<p>We’ve used Children’s exclusively when my children needed emergency care. They were terrific. They are not children anymore, but we still use the underlying organization Partners, who run Mass General and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. </p>
<p>This whole story is shocking to any parent.</p>
<p>Just speculating here, don’t know any of the people involved, but in my experience some parents can be so nasty, difficult and even threatening to professionals who care for their children that you wonder what happens behind closed doors within their own families. Everything I’ve read about this strange case makes you think there must be much more to the story…</p>
<p>Until you read that it is just Children’s Hospital doing this - not other hospitals in boston, and that they had also done this with other parents of kids with Mito illnesses.</p>
<p>Our kids’ doc was VERY careful in working with us and the private HS. She said that over the years, she had seen what MDs had said twisted and used against the student and family. When we needed to get anything medical to the school, we’d ask them for a printed list of what they wanted and she and I would sit down and write a response in writing. The HS was never happy with that but it was for the protection of our kids and us as a family.</p>
<p>Our kids also had chronic health issues that were not easy to diagnose or treat. We spent a lot of time and money consulting experts over the years, in HI, NY, CO, and CA. It was exhausting and if we had been accused of child abuse causing our kids psychiatric harm, that would have been really heartbreaking for all of us. There ARE a lot of health issues that defy easy diagnosis and treatment. Most healthcare providers are willing and able to acknowledge that they DON’t have a lot of answers of these more atypical and complex cases.</p>
<p>I really feel for the families and children who are accused of abuse because the children’s health issues are complex and not easily diagnosed and treated. It’s wrong on all levels. </p>
<p>I have a friend who had complicated metabolic/mitochondrial health issues, as did both of her kids. She even became an RN so she could better understand all their complex issues and potential treatments. She took them to specialists all over the US, even with her modest income. She was also accused at one point of manufacturing her kids’ conditions. Her kids are still having a lot of health problems, over ten years after I met her in CO where we had both brought our kids to a children’s hospital for a more thorough evaluation and hoped for better treatment. </p>
<p>S had a pediatric GI who insisted that S had school phobia and THAT was why he was having headaches and throwing up. S insisted that she was wrong but she stuck with her diagnosis and refused to consider GI issues, which S continued to suffer with. (S continued to have school friends, was very popular in school in sports, and excel in school throughout.)</p>
<p>This is such a heartbreaking story. It is hard to see all sides clearly as there seems to be more to the story. Unfortunately there are parents that are demanding, and a little over the top when it comes to there children. In the ER where I work, it is sometimes a difficult boundary to gauge with sick children and their parents. We see into just a small window and snapshot of the dynamics of child illnesses and parents and sometimes some things just don’t add up or make sense. So do we let it go or err on the side of caution. Ad a mandatory reporter if can be a very hard call to make.</p>
<p>Milkandsugar, can you shed some insight as to why Children’s wouldn’t consult with their own GI who the parents came to Children’s specifically to see? That’s the part that I can’t understand. </p>
<p>How can anyone be that confident of any diagnosis.</p>
<p>This is a horrifying story. My son has been evaluated at Children’s 3 times for a variety of strange, unrelated symptoms (possible absence seizures in preschool, a case of double pneumonia that wouldn’t go away in elementary school, and a Marfan Syndrome work-up in high school) and I now wonder what on earth they would do to us if we ever had to go back for something else. Honestly, this would make me reluctant to seek care there.</p>
<p>I don’t know for certain whether the Pelletiers have abused their daughter, but I do know that some people do get weird symptoms for which doctors can find no explanation. Blaming it on the parents without proof is just wrong.</p>
<p>Obviously we don’t know the whole story. I sure hope that the docs who decided to keep her in the psych ward for 10 months are absolutely positive about their diagnosis. </p>
<p>I can’t fathom why the hospital wouldn’t let the specialist see the child. Something – actually, several somethings – are missing from this story.</p>
<p>ETA: I just googled the girl’s name and found another article at boston.com. One comment to the article does present a different point of view:</p>
<p>She’s had 10 months of psychiatric incarceration; she’s having psych treatment. She doesn’t seem any better. Other specialists have diagnosed her with Mito issues. She seems to have good relationship with parents, has good friends, wants to go home. The hospital said part of the overreaching of the parents was demanding a nasogastric feeding tube. After the hospital cut her parents out of the picture they ended up using a nasogastric tube since she needed one…</p>
<p>Assuming the troubling allegations against Children’s Hospital and Massachusetts’ Child Welfare authorities are true, this is one of the major parts of the story which makes the Children’s Hospital’s side dubious.</p>
<p>Another is the seeming haste between initial entry, psychosomatic diagnosis contradicting the Mito diagnosis of the Tufts doctors, refusal to allow a second opinion/move to Tufts Hospital, and then calling in child welfare authorities. </p>
<p>From all that, it’s reasonable for many to be deeply concerned at Children’s Hospital staunch insistence of its correctness…even at the point of bringing in coercive state agencies to bar parental access and place a 15 year old into a psychiatric ward.</p>
<p>VeryHappy, that article certainly presents another view as I suspected we are not getting the entire story.
ClassicRockerDad, I really don’t understand why the GI specialist did not see the child, BUT, the article does not say but Im sure the parent has gotten in touch with the specialist and we are not privy as to what the explanation is. Perhaps, there were known issues and this was his only recourse, I don’t know. Too many unknowns. Did the family contact lawyers, were the state Ombudsman involved.
Maybe the family was ready to walk out with the child without getting a necessary treatment and the hospital had to step in on behalf of the child. That can be considered neglect. There are some red flags that do go up, a child with many doctors, travel to many places seeking treatments, freq. switching of doctors, lots of prescriptions from different doctors, ambiguous and catch all diagnoses, utilizing different hospitals. I can go in the computer at work and see where and what prescriptions you got either mail order and retail. There is a national database that is available to hospitals. Also, there are certain laws in place that protect pts and hospitals called EMTALA. This pt was transported to the hospital via ambulance. Most likely that means the ER. They are required by law to do a medical screening regardless of who is there medical doctor to determine their emergency status and institute diagnostics and relative treatment. Of course, one can refuse, but then why did you show up in the first place. I’ll repeat, too many unknowns.</p>
<p>Boston Children’s is prohibited from speaking about the case. Boston Children’s is renowned. Boston Children’s has been holding her for 10 months. </p>
<p>We’ve only heard the parents’ side of things. I really hope the hospital knows what its doing and that they are right. I find it hard to believe otherwise.</p>
<p>My son was hospitalized at Boston Children’s Hospital about 2 months ago and spent about 3 weeks there. He was also diagnosed with a rare condition and I spent almost every day/night with him. The team of docs were wonderful and they did not think that we were a nuisance or hindrance being there with him. Every development was discussed daily with us during the morning rounds with a team of doctors and whichever nurse on duty that morning. DS is very vocal and opinionated but his/our opinion and wishes were always carefully considered in their treatment of his condition. So we only have good things to say about BCH and thankful that something like this did not happen to him. Scary thought.</p>
<p>Also he was transferred from a local suburban hospital to BCH via ambulance and the request for transfer had to first be approved by BCH. The request had to be initiated by a doctor at our local suburban hospital first and it was done because the specialized care was not available there. So you can’t simply walk into any hospital to continue your care. So most likely her transfer happened in the same way. BCH has to have a spot available for her and medical records transferred when patient transfers over. He bypassed the ER and was wheeled straight up to his room. </p>
<p>I remember the day that he was discharged. As soon as we got the OK from each specialist, the discharge happens quickly. It happened in manner of hours. They don’t want to keep you at the hospital longer than you need to. So 10 months for this girl sounds like she has some serious issues or that they are just keeping her there away from her parents. Something here is definitely not adding up. </p>
<p>I watched one of the stories in the links and saw some security guards at the trial. When we were at the hospital, I saw a girl about her age in a stretcher coming out of the elevator escorted by 4-5 security guards or cops. It was a sight I recall very well because I thought it was strange for a young girl to have so many guards around her and she was strapped in a stretcher (hardly a threat). She didn’t seem distraught and had a slight smile on her face. I wonder if that was her.</p>