Justina Pelletier - The Ruling

"...psychological and clinical evaluations of the parents are necessary." 

The ruling regarding the future care of 15 year-old teen Justina Pelletier has been posted online.

Reading through the ruling one cannot help but to feel angry and frustrated that hearsay seems to be the basis upon which Judge Joseph Johnson arrived at his decision. He seems to have been convinced by apparent experts that Justina "suffers from a persistent and severe Somatic Symptom Disorder." I've yet to see any scientific evidence that such a disorder exists. If someone could point me to brain images of this disorder then I'd be eternally grateful.

Judge Johnson has accepted the word of mental health, he has taken it at face value. It's akin to a prosecutor in a criminal trial claiming to have the murder weapon...then, once asked by the Judge to produce it, tells the Judge that he doesn't have it in his possession but he saw it...ergo it must exist.

Furthermore, it now appears that Justina's parents have come under the scrutiny of the psychiatric 'guesswork' profession.

"...psychological and clinical evaluations of the parents are necessary." 

Is fighting for your child now deemed as a mental illness?

The one thing this case has highlighted is how mental health likes to widen the net. Lou and Linda Pelletier have, for the past 14 months been fighting to regain custody of their daughter, and rightly so. If they hadn't have been fighting for her then I would probably suggest that they had some sort of callous disorder. In truth, they have done what any parent, under the same circumstances, would have done. To try and label their 'natural response' as a mental disorder shows exactly how the field of mental health works.

Disagree with da man in da white coat at your peril. Show defiance against a mental health diagnosis and you too will be labelled with a disorder... or at the very least be psychologically and clinically evaluated!

Here's the ruling... Faxed by Judge Joseph Johnson. [Click on images to enlarge]

Please use the hashtag #FreeJustina when tweeting this post.

Bob Fiddaman


Back Stories:

Boston Children’s Hospital - A Prison For Children

Justina Pelletier: A Pawn in a Psychiatric Game of Chess

Marriott Hotels and the Case of Justina Pelletier

Car Trouble (Justina Pelletier)

Justina Pelletier - Condition Deteriorates

Judge Joseph Johnson delivers blow to the family of Justina Pelletier

Judge Joseph Johnson delivers blow to the family of Justina Pelletier

Judge Joseph Johnson delivered a blow to the family of Justina Pelletier earlier today when he ruled that Justina Pelletier remain in “permanent” custody of the state agency, furthermore it will now be up to the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families [DCF] to decide if and when the 15-year-old will be returned to her parents custody.

Kind of ironic given that it was the DCF who removed Justina from her parents care back in February 2013.

Earlier this week Justina's sister, told Fox CT that "she has never seen her in worse condition."

Jennifer Pelletier said, “Her physical appearance, just from seeing her, it’s scary.  Her legs are more swollen. They’re cold to the touch. She has no feeling in her feet,” Jennifer said on air here.

Almost 14 months ago Justina Pelletier was being treated for mitochondrial disease, a genetic disorder that affects muscle tissue, by doctors at Tufts Medical Center. She was admitted to Boston Children’s Hospital when she came down with the flu. Doctors at BCH disagreed with the Tufts doctors and diagnosed her with somatoform disorder, a mental illness. At no stage have Boston Children’s Hospital offered any concrete evidence that supports their diagnosis.

I challenge them to show the evidence that Justina has a mental illness... this is something Judge Joseph Johnson should have done.

One doesn't have to be Einstein to see how Justina's health has deteriorated during her spell under the care of the government [images below]

Thousands of people on Twitter have expressed their outrage at Judge Joseph Johnson's ruling and many are vowing that they will step up a gear in seeking justice for Justina and the Pelletier family.

Justina's case has captured the hearts of thousands of people worldwide, the majority of whom being sickened by this latest in the Justina Pelletier saga. There has been an outpouring of support on social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

This news comes as no surprise to me. When Mental Health Services pry into family matters there really is only ever one outcome. Label the child with a mental disorder, drug them and/or, in the case of many, remove them from their family home.

Justina has been diagnosed as having somatoform disorder, an apparent mental illness where the subject feels pain but no physical cause is found. The pain is, according to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, thought to be due to psychological problems.

Notice the use of the word 'thought'?

In truth, somatoform disorder is nothing but a theory, it's not an actual disease of the brain. Ask any psychiatrist if somatoform disorder, or any other disorder for that matter, can be proven beyond reasonable doubt.

I suspect that Justina Pelletier is wondering why she is still not with her parents tonight, I suspect her parents are baffled, nae devastated by this latest ruling.

All those involved in the care and well-being of Justina Pelletier have failed and they have failed on a catastrophic level.

As for Judge Joseph Johnson, he would have been aware of Justina's deteriorating condition under the 'care' of the government. He would have seen the photos that have circulated over the internet during the past month or so. One has to ask why he has deemed that the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families is the best place for Justina.

A petition to the white house demanding a criminal investigation into Massachusetts DCF and BCH needs just two more signatures to reach the goal of 100,000 by April 24.

Bob Fiddaman

Back Stories:

Boston Children’s Hospital - A Prison For Children

Justina Pelletier: A Pawn in a Psychiatric Game of Chess

Marriott Hotels and the Case of Justina Pelletier

Car Trouble (Justina Pelletier)

Justina Pelletier - Condition Deteriorates

Justina Pelletier - Condition Deteriorates

The sister of Justina Pelletier, a West Hartford teen who has been held from her parents since they admitted her to Boston Children’s Hospital in February 2013 with flu-like symptoms, has told Fox CT that "she has never seen her in worse condition."

Jennifer Pelletier said, “Her physical appearance, just from seeing her, it’s scary.  Her legs are more swollen. They’re cold to the touch. She has no feeling in her feet,” Jennifer said on air here.

Last Monday, Judge Joseph Johnston failed to deliver his ruling in the Justina Pelletier custody case, opting instead to deliver his verdict on Friday. On Friday Judge Joseph Johnston, once again moved the goalposts, this time opting to give his verdict on Tuesday. He provided no explanation for the delay.

Meantime, 15 year-old Justina remains in a facility in Framingham, Mass. She has been held by the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families for 14 months, during which time she has been diagnosed with a mental disorder and treated accordingly. It's unknown if Justina has been prescribed any psychiatric drugs. The Massachusetts  DCF have refused to acknowledge that the cause of Justina's real illness is  a muscular disease known as mitochondrial disease.

Hasn't this young girl been through enough?

Not only has Justina been diagnosed with an illness that cannot be proven, she has had medication for her original diagnosis halted because a bunch of white-coated imbeciles wish to play God, in essence they are using a 15 year-old girl as a guinea pig and their stubborness is causing her health to deteriorate and her heart to break.

Justina needs to be stopped being used as a pawn here and returned to her parents. Judge Joseph Johnston needs to look into the diagnosis offered by the The Massachusetts  DCF and Boston Children's Hospital. He needs to ask questions about Somatoform Disorder, once such question being, "Can you show this court Somatoform Disorder in any x-rays or scans or maybe blood samples?"

Going up against Mental Health should be easy for a Judge. Any Judge worth his salt will rigorously look at the evidence before him, he should question the experience and background of those providing the evidence.

Here we have a case where high ranking government officials are stipulating evidence without actually showing it - it's akin to telling a jury that a murder weapon has been found that will prove the guilt of the accused... then not showing that evidence.

Judge Joseph Johnston should not just take it at face value that Justina has Somatoform Disorder. He should ask for proof as he would in any other case he may have been part of in the past or any he is part of in the future.

Failing that, Judge Joseph Johnston should just take a look at the picture below and not only return Justina to her parents but hand over relevant documents to prosecutors who should, in turn, make arrests and charge those responsible for this barbaric treatment of Justina Pelletier.

Bob Fiddaman

When Tweeting this post please add the hashtag #FreeJustina


Back Stories:

Boston Children’s Hospital - A Prison For Children

Justina Pelletier: A Pawn in a Psychiatric Game of Chess

Marriott Hotels and the Case of Justina Pelletier

Car Trouble (Justina Pelletier)

Lou Pelltier Speaks Out [VIDEO]

A video circulating on the majority of social networks shows Justina's father, Lou, speaking out regarding the abhorrent treatment of his daughter.

The video, which has been made available as a download via dropbox, can be downloaded here.

I urge readers to tweet this to the Boston Children's Hospital corporate sponsors [fig1]

Fig 1

The whole Justina Pelltier saga has been highlighted by many activists, it's opened a few eyes to those who took it at face value that the field of psychiatry and mental health workers actually know what they are doing - truth is, the whole field of pediatric psychiatry is one that needs to be seriously looked at.

Justina Pelltier is one of many thousands of children across the world who has been diagnosed with a mental illness that just not exist. The irony of this story is that these apparent mental health specialists have completely ignored Justina's real illness and even suggested that her illness does not exist. On this basis they have diagnosed a 15 year-old girl with a mental disorder, a mental disorder created by idiotic imbeciles who have co-authored one of the biggest scams of modern day history...namely, the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders [DSM], a manual designed to entrap children like Justina Pelltier.

In the video Lou speaks of his daughter Justina...

"She is my hero and she needs to be a hero for every child and family in this country."

Speaking of a proposed new law Lou added...

"This law will state, very clearly, if you have a medical diagnosis and some hospital, doctor, psychologist, wants to come along and says what you have is not medical, it's up here [Lou points to head] that doctor, that psychologist will then lose their licence and go to jail."

Lou goes into detail of what happened to his daughter and how she has been kept away from the family home for 13 long months.

The 33 minute video is below. Please disseminate as far and wide as you can.






Here's other children, babies and adults who never beat the system.






Bob Fiddaman

Back Stories

Boston Children’s Hospital - A Prison For Children

Justina Pelletier: A Pawn in a Psychiatric Game of Chess

Marriott Hotels and the Case of Justina Pelletier

Car Trouble (Justina Pelletier)

Justina's Parents Still Fighting

Justina's Parents Still Fighting

"There's no argument that she was doing better under their [parents] care than under the care of the government" - Rev Patrick Mahoney

The saga continues.

With all the public outrage surrounding the case of Justina Pelletier one would have thought that the moronic white-coated buffoons, who diagnosed her with somatoform disorder, would have swallowed their pride and admitted they were wrong... and then released Justina back to her parents. That would seem the most logical thing to do, right?

Well, the words 'logic' and 'psychiatry' just do not bode well together.

Take a good look at the picture above. On the left is a photo taken of Justina in December 2012. During this time she had been diagnosed with mitochondrial disease, a disease that she was being treated for.

The photo on the right was taken last month. This after Boston Children's Hospital had disagreed with her diagnosis of mitochondrial disease and claimed she had somatoform disorder, which they claim is a recognised mental illness.

It doesn't take Einstein to work out which treatment was working better for Justina.

Her parents have, for the past 13 months, had their hands tied, having a gag order placed upon them that, should they break, they could be heavily fined or sent to prison.

Thankfully, the gag order has now been lifted and Justina's father, Lou, has spoken publicly for the first time. [legally]

“I will not stop until this nonsense comes to an end,” Pelletier told WBZ-TV’s Ken MacLeod. “DCF takes control of somebody and you just fall into this deep rabbit hole and there’s no way out.”

Lou also features in a special WGBH News report [video below] and speaks frankly about how Justina was treated successfully at Tufts Medical Center for her mitochondrial disease before Boston Children's Hospital became involved.

"A young neurologist comes along and says there's no such thing as mitochondrial disease and that was the beginning of the nightmare"

Marriott Hotels, who are one of the Boston Children's Hospital main principle sponsors, seemed to be coming out in support of Justina last week when they tweeted the following message to me [fig 1]

fig 1

Sadly, it would appear that Marriott have now chosen to remain quiet. This particular stance astounds me given that last year Stephen Marriott, whose father presided over the Marriott International business empire, died at age 54 through complications from mitochondrial disease, the very same disease Justina Pelletier had been diagnosed with. The very same disease that those involved within the mental health system are claiming Justina does not have and does not exist.

Marriott should really step up to the plate here. In essence, the very same hospital they financially support are saying that Stephen Marriott did not have mitochondrial disease because it simply does not exist.

"A young neurologist comes along and says there's no such thing as mitochondrial disease and that was the beginning of the nightmare" - Lou Pelletier

Marriott have been busy, it seems. But not in the way that one would expect them to be.

They will, of course, be concerned about their image and association with Boston Children's Hospital. This is apparent in the image below. It was taken from the statistics of my blog and shows the Marriott Corporation using the search term "boston children's hospital + marriott + justina"

You see, it's all about image and Marriott are probably looking at protecting theirs rather than really looking into the abhorrent treatment of Justina Pelletier by the very same hospital they support... the very same hospital who, according to Justina's father, have staff that don't believe that mitochondrial disease exists. That's quite a slur on Stephen Marriott, don't you think?

Here's the special WGBH News report.

Bob Fiddaman

If you choose to tweet this story then please accompany it with the hashtag #FreeJustina

Back Stories

Boston Children’s Hospital - A Prison For Children

Justina Pelletier: A Pawn in a Psychiatric Game of Chess

Marriott Hotels and the Case of Justina Pelletier

Car Trouble (Justina Pelletier)

Car Trouble (Justina Pelletier)

"Chug, chug, sputtle, sputtle"

'Damn, my car needs fixing', I thought, as my car of 15 years came to a halt on a quiet suburban street in Birmingham.

That was 13 months ago. The story that follows is quite bizarre and has, to be brutally honest, frustrated me.

I managed to take my car to a local garage, it was a slow journey, pressing down on the accelerator would cause the car to jump and chug.

Anyway... on arriving at the garage I was given some strange looks by the mechanics. I booked the car in for a full service and checked my bank balance... this was going to put a dent in my finances but it needed to be done.

Almost 24 hours later I received a phone call. "It's the fuel injection/pump, it's completely gone...you are looking at 600, maybe 700 with labour."

How long will it take?", I asked

"Well, we have to order the parts so it could take up to four days for those to get here. We do have a garage about three miles away that you could take your car to though"

Given the second option meant my car would be fixed and back on the road within 24 hours I decided to head back to the garage to take my car three miles down the road.

Later that day...

I arrived at the garage and told the head mechanic that it was a fuel injection/pump problem. I ordered a cab and headed back home.

3 hours later I received a phone call. Apparently I had a cam shaft problem.

"What about the fuel injection/pump problem?" I asked.

"We don't see any problem with the fuel injection/pump, we ran a series of tests using our new diagnostic tool, it's definitely a cam shaft problem"

"Diagnostic tests?"

"Yes, we basically ask 5 of our mechanics to look at your car...we don't actually open the bonnet or put your car in the air to look underneath, we just...well, we just look at it then discuss what the problem could be"

"So, you are just guessing that it's a cam shaft problem?" I asked.

"Well, it's more than guesswork....the diagnostic tool has been proven."

"So, you are telling me that without actually looking at the fuel injection/pump you have diagnosed that there isn't a fuel injection/pump problem...in fact the problem is a dodgy cam shaft... and you have not physically seen the dodgy cam shaft?"

"Yes, correct sir"

"Well, when will it be fixed?", I asked.

"We don't think you are capable of looking after your car and have decided to keep it here. Furthermore, we have obtained a court injunction that prohibits you from talking about our decision and diagnosis to anyone."


Sounds bizarre doesn't it.

You can imagine my reluctance to leave my car in the hands of mechanics who hadn't bothered to look at the engine and parts that made the engine tick over.

It turns out that the mechanics were all former psychiatrists.

Now read the related stories below.


Bob Fiddaman

Related Stories.

Boston Children’s Hospital - A Prison For Children

Justina Pelletier: A Pawn in a Psychiatric Game of Chess

Marriott Hotels and the Case of Justina Pelletier

Marriott Hotels and the Case of Justina Pelletier

One way to give stubbornness a swift kick to the nether regions is to talk money... or lack of it.

Yesterday I Tweeted an article I wrote about Justina Pelletier to the Boston Children's Hospital's corporate sponsors. One of those sponsors, namely Marriott Hotels, replied. The reply [below] has since been circulated around social networks and Marriott are receiving much acclaim for their stance.

Here's the tweet...

The article I tweeted to Marriott and the Boston Children's Hospital five other corporate sponsors was critical of the treatment of Justina and can be read here.

The response from Marriott should raise the red flag for the 5 remaining corporate sponsors who have failed to speak out  regarding the treatment of 15 year-old Justina, namely; Aquafina, Roche Bros, TD Bank, Waste Management and Toyota.

Those that are up to speed on the whole Justina Pelletier case will know that there's debate between doctors about her diagnosis. On one hand we have a disease doctor at Tufts Medical Center who diagnosed Justina with mitochondrial disorder, a chronic, genetic disorder that occurs when the mitochondria of the cell fails to produce enough energy for cell or organ function. Then we have another opinion of another doctor/psychologist who claims Justina has somatoform disorder, an apparent mental disorder characterized by symptoms that suggest physical illness or injury.

Last year Stephen Marriott, whose father presided over the Marriott International business empire, died at age 54. The cause of death, according to his father, was complications from mitochondrial disease. The very same disease Justina Pelletier had been diagnosed with. The very same disease that those involved within the mental health system are claiming Justina does not have.

Stephen's father also added, that his son was "...properly diagnosed about 20 years ago and in recent years had taken an experimental drug that probably helped prolong his life."

There have been many media reports that have suggested that Justina's medication to treat her mitochondrial disease have been stopped.

One has to applaud Marriott Hotels for taking a stand here. Okay, they are only looking in to the issues surrounding the case but to publicly admit that they have notified the 'appropriate people within the organization' is a brave move and one that may just haunt the Boston Children's Hospital.

It will be very interesting to see how this one develops.

I will, of course, keep you posted.

Bob Fiddaman.


Back Stories:

Boston Children’s Hospital - A Prison For Children

Justina Pelletier: A Pawn in a Psychiatric Game of Chess