[Magdalen] Alfie Evans has died

[Jay Weigel]

The problem with Justina's case, as I understood it, was that her regular
doctor, who had been treating both her and her sister for several years,
was not on staff at Boston Children's, and Children's refused to give him
courtesy privileges. Her case was taken over by a psychiatrist who believed
that her symptoms were "all in her head". The former figure skater got
worse and worse while on the psych unit untreated. IIRC, eventually
something came to light about collusion between this psychiatrist, the
judge in the case who placed Justina in state custody, and children who
came in from out of state to BCH as she did (because they were closer to
BCH, or because they were referred there). I read an update about Justina a
few months ago. She is now in a wheelchair most of the time and receiving
physical therapy to help her walk again. Absolutely the parents needed
better legal representation, but geez.

On Mon, Apr 30, 2018 at 1:05 PM, ME Michaud <michaudme at gmail.com> wrote:

> I do remember it. IIRC she was originally placed in state custody because
> Children’s Hospital suspected her parents of abuse and sought to separate
> them during the investigation. Children’s has dealt with this sort of thing
> before, of course (like Munchausen-by-proxy), so they’re probably more
> vigilant than a community hospital would ever be.
>
> Her parents needed better legal representation, but fell into the hands of
> the pro-life lobby instead. And that put everybody’s back up.
>
> Once upon a time I used to attend the hospital’s monthly patient advocacy
> meetings. One of the rules was social workers, nurses, physicians,
> chaplains, even librarians were all co-equal and the discussions were very
> open and free-wheeling. The meetings were videotaped. I know how hard
> everybody worked on these cases. People asked questions (both real and
> rhetorical), people acknowledged mistakes, suggested changes in protocols.
> Each case was like an epic poem! Hard serious work. I always came away
> shocked and awed,
> -M
>
>
> On Monday, April 30, 2018, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > ME, do you remember the Justina Pellettier case? I kind of felt the
> parents
> > handled the media side wrong, but I guess they went to the only folks who
> > would listen at the time.
> >
>