Justina Pelletier, a 15-year-old at the center of a custody dispute, will be sent back to Connecticut, confirmed The Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF) on Friday. Agency officials added that Tufts Medical Center would be overseeing her medical care, in compliance with her parents' wishes.
Pelletier suffers from a rare mitochondrial disease in which the body's cells can't produce energy, resulting in chronic fatigue and digestive problems. She has been receiving treatment from Tufts while in Massachusetts state custody for the past year.
Pelletier's parents have been in an ongoing dispute with doctors at Children's Hospital over her treatment and diagnosis since February, when they brought Justina into the emergency room and physicians diagnosed her problem as psychiatric.
The Pelletiers objected to this diagnosis and pushed for, in the doctors' eyes, unnecessary medical intervention. Children's Hospital promptly contacted DCF, which brought her into state custody, charging the parents with medical child abuse because they pursued medical rather than psychiatric treatment. However, a judge later ruled in favor of keeping Justina in state custody.
"Our primary goal has always been the health and well-being of Justina. We want the parents to be able to work with the providers and courts to ultimately move Justina back to her home state of Connecticut," DCF spokesman Alex Loftus stated, according to CBS.
Justina could be transferred either back to her home in West Hartford, with state oversight, or a nearby foster care or residential treatment facility. Regardless of where the young girl ends up, father Lou Pelletier says, "Obviously this is a step in the right direction."
For now, Children's Hospital is still monitoring Justina's care, and is satisfied with her progress in and out of the hospital. However, her parents are not quite as pleased, claiming that her condition has worsened.
The next court date is March 17, presided by Juvenile Court Judge Joseph Johnston.
