The UK Daily Mail reports.

Excerpt:

A Connecticut teenager is closer to being returned to her parents after the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families decided she was better off in the care of her family than the state.

The final decision now rests with Judge Joseph Johnston who gave the state permanent custody of Justina Pelletier in March.

The move came after a highly publicized battle involving differing diagnoses from doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital and Tufts Medical Center and allegations of medical child abuse against her parents.

The 16-year-old made an impassioned plea to go home earlier this week, and DCF has removed its longstanding opposition to the idea. DCF now claims that Lou and Linda Pelletier have met the conditions asked of them in order to get their child back.

They will all now be looking to see if the judge agrees.

[…]The Pelletiers’ trying ordeal began 16 months ago when they submitted their daughter for evaluation at Tufts University hospital.

Justina’s case has gained attention after a diagnostic dispute between her doctors at Tufts Medical Center and at Boston Children’s Hospital over whether her deteriorating condition was primarily a physical or a psychiatric problem.

She was being treated at Tufts for more than a year for mitochondrial disease, a group of genetic disorders that affect how cells produce energy, often causing problems with the gut, brain, muscles, and heart.

However, doctors at Children’s hospital took a different view and concluded that her physical symptoms were primarily caused by psychological disorders.

After the conflicting diagnosis, doctors allegedly gave Justina’s parents the bewildering and heart-breaking news that they wouldn’t be able to take their daughter home.

Justina’s parents refused to accept that her condition was psychological in nature and tried to discharge her and bringing her back to Tufts.

Speaking of the moment their daughter was taken away from her, the teenager’s mother said: ”They came in, and they said we cannot take Justina out of the hospital.

‘They called DCF (Department for Children and Families).

‘They said Justina had ‘somatoform disorder,’ a form of mental illness that is characterized by physical symptoms.’

Linda and Lou Pelletier were escorted out of the hospital by security, and within the short space of four days they had lost custody of their beloved daughter.

In my previous post on this story, I noted that parental visits were conducted under armed guard. That’s what the state did to these parents.

I hope we will see a close to this story soon. I would like to see DCF social workers and the medical personnel at the Boston Children’s Hospital charged and tried in a criminal court for what they did. Maybe the charges could be something like child abuse or kidnapping. I hope that the people who made the decisions that took the girl away from her parents will see significant jail time. Then parents might start to have faith in their hospitals and social workers – which they are paying for. But then again, this is Massachusetts. It’s probably too much to hope for common sense there.