In The Battle for Justina Pelletier, Peaco*ck explores the real-life case of a 14-year-old who was taken out of her parent's care in Boston and was unable to leave the hospital for more than a year.
In February 2013, Justina's parents, Lou and Linda Pelletier, took their daughter to Boston Children's Hospital following complaints of severe stomach pain.
When the teen was seen by doctors at the facility, they felt that she did not have the rare illness she'd been diagnosed with months prior—mitochondrial disease.
The doctors suspected Justina had somatoform disorder, a mental health issue in which a person has physical symptoms that aren't caused by a physical ailment.
The hospital was later concerned that Justina had Munchausen syndrome by proxy, arguing that her parents were overmedicalizing her. The doctors decided to provide in-hospital treatment.
What Happened to Justina Pelletier?
Justina Pelletier was at the Boston Children's Hospital from February 13, 2013, until June 2014. During this period, her parents were not allowed to discuss medical issues with her or with medical professionals from outside the facility.
On February 14, 2013, Justina's father, Lou Pelletier, attempted to have her discharged from the hospital. In the documentary, he explained that he wanted to get Justina "the hell out of there" as he felt "this situation [was] going south and I need to fix this."
The hospital refused to allow Justina's parents to discharge her because she was unable to walk, eat or drink and needed to have in-patient care. Lou Pelletier then called 9-1-1 and told the police that he believed the hospital was "kidnapping his daughter."
In the end, Justina's parents and her sister, Jessica, were escorted out of the hospital by police. Later in the day, Boston Children's Hospital filed a 51A report in which they declared they would be taking custody of Justina from her parents. The hospital accused the Pelletiers of medical negligence. Justina's parents denied these accusations and fought to have their daughter return home.
Justina remained in the care of Boston Children's Hospital until January 2014, when she was then transferred to a facility in Framingham, Massachusetts. During this period, Martin Gottesfeld, a member of the Anonymous group, hacked the hospital's computer system to demand Justina be returned to her family.
Following a 16-month custody battle between the Pelletier family and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on June 17, 2014, a judge dismissed the child protection case against Lou and Linda Pelletier and ruled that Justina could return home to her family. She returned home on June 18.
The family filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Boston Children's Hospital in February 2016. The five-week trial took place in 2020 and ended on February 20. The jury found that Boston Children's Hospital was not negligent in their care of Justina, per NBC Boston.
In a statement given to Newsweek following the release of the documentary,Boston Children's Hospital said: "At Boston Children's Hospital, we strive to act in the best interest of every child who comes to us for care, as we did with Justina Pelletier.
"The jury's decision affirmed what we have always believed: that our clinicians provided Justina high quality, compassionate care, and acted in the best interest of her health and well-being at all times."
Where Is Justina Pelletier Now?
Justina's father explained in the documentary that since returning home from the hospital, she "kept riding horses, started getting involved in school activities," and focused on making art. On June 15, 2020, Justina graduated from high school.
In early 2022, her father said that Justina "had a challenging year" after she had a stroke in October 2021. He said the stroke left her unable to walk and impacted her speech ability. Her mother described it as being an "extremely scary" time.
Despite the health scare, Justina appears in the Peaco*ck documentary's final episode, in which the Pelletier family discussed her life. Justina herself spoke for the first time on camera following the medical malpractice lawsuit.
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Filming on February 26, 2022, Justina described her experiences at Boston Children's Hospital. Justina, then aged 23, said she "didn't like" being in the facility in 2013 and said "it was hard and lonely" to be there.
A geneticist, Dr. Richard Boles, explained in the documentary that Justina's DNA sequence shows that she does have a complex form of mitochondrial disease. Dr Boles added that many of his patients with the illness do have some level of somatoform disorder as the disease impacts their nervous system.
Following her stroke, Justina has been having physical therapy and is working to improve her health condition. She was shown on May 20, 2022, being treated by a physical therapist. Her mother explained that Justina hopes to walk again, and she was also shown trying adaptive skiing.
Director David Metzler told Newsweek why it was important to have Justina appear in the documentary, saying the creative team wanted her to be in the final episode because it is her story to tell.
"If anybody should have the last word on this, it should be Justina, right?" Metzler said, adding, "If you take everybody else out of this equation, it's Justina who has suffered the most and who has dealt with the most.
"So we wanted to make sure that the last episode was focused squarely on her, and how she felt and how she's doing and what she's doing, because she really is a pretty remarkable person. It was very important that she be the last thing you see in the documentary because it's really about her."
The Battle for Justina Pelletier is out on Peaco*ck now.
Update 12/13/22: This article was updated to include official images from the documentary and a statement from Boston Children's Hospital.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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