Doctors Jurriaan Peters & I. Simona Bujoreanu: Accused!
In this series of posts, I focus on the accused Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSbP) Perpetrators – Provider Types in the Justina Pelletier case. In my first few posts, I describe the main person accused – Dr. Alice Newton – and draw a parallel between her and Dr. Roy Meadow, who was not charged with criminal activity but actually went through the British court system for professional misconduct, ultimately being found not guilty.
Here, I talk about the other two accused doctors in the Pelletier case: Jurriaan Peters and I. Simona Bujoreanu. I argue that from the available evidence online, I think Dr. Peters was probably bullied into this behavior by Drs. Newton and Bujoreanu – but you make your own judgment.
Who is Dr. Peters?
His online profile at the Harvard Computational Radiology Laboratory says he completed his training as a child neurologist in the summer of 2012. Dr. Peters appears to be liked by his patients; his rating on HealthGrades is 4 stars as of this writing.
This means he is early in his career (HealthGrades says he’s aged 41), and has little power to defend himself against the MSbP Perpetrator – Provider Types of the world. I am guessing, given his background, he was responsible for doing the imaging of Justina Pelletier. If I were to guess, I would guess that he was bullied into misrepresenting the results of the images by Dr. Newton’s team, who was focused on trying to gain false evidence against Pelletier’s family.
Who is Dr. Bujoreanu?
Certainly, this person is NOT Dr. Peters.
Dr. Bujoreanu has a record in HealthGrades under Dr. I Simona Bujoreanu (32 responses), and one on Yelp (2 responses). Both report an average rating of one star.
Here is a breakdown of her 32 responses on Healthgrades on February 27, 2016, and her two reviews from Yelp are reprinted here:
SHE IS A NAZI. REVOKE HER LICENSE AND DEPORT HER IMMEDIATELY. I followed very closely the tragic and horrific
case of Justina Pelletier, who was abducted and imprisoned by this Nazi hospital. This woman is an evil Nazi and should be serving life without parole for kidnapping/child abduction and false imprisonment. As long as she and “Doctor” Jurriaan Peters are still employed at this evil, Nazi hospital, I cannot understand why ANYONE would bring their child to this “hospital.” It should be bulldozed so it can never again imprison children in a psych ward who come for needed medical treatment and then do not receive it and are denied the ability to see their family and friends for months or years.
Do NOT take your child to this doctor. She is an ego maniac that specializes in Somatoform disorder, basically a fancy way to say it is “all in their head”, even if other respected medical doctors do not agree, resulting in your child being taken away and locked in a psych ward. PLEASE google Justina Pelletier and Elizabeth Wray…these children are just the tip of the iceberg!!
Recommendations from the Proxy Project:
- First, rule out MSbP Perpetration – Provider Type with Drs. Newton and Bujoreanu. They appear to have the most evidence in the public domain of engaging in this behavior.
- Next, investigate Dr. Peters as a victim of bullying by MSbP Perpetrators – Provider Types, and rule that out. In a parent type MSbP case, the parental perpetrator bullies radiologists and others into misrepresenting findings so the child can have more unnecessary medical care. We need to make sure that did not happen here, only with Drs. Newton and Bujoreanu being the bullies.
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Image of x-ray from the US CDC.
The Proxy Project 
I guard my personage and my affairs with multiple layers of firewall. That is why it is better to talk about things online instead of f2f. And I’m not looking for pity, so there is absolutely no reason to make disclosures. But making assumptions about me will almost always lead to misperceptions.
I don’t go along with the concept of mental illness. But I know there are bad providers, just like there are vast numbers of bad parents. As far as I know Roy Meadow was exonerated of all allegations of wrong doing. If you have something to the contrary I’d be interested to see it.
Another good book:
As far as Justina Pelletier and her doctors at BCH, I’m still reading to see what I think. Maybe they were a little bit too quick to try and fit her case into a particular model, but I still need to see evidence of this before I see it that way.
returning to the Boston Globe Timeline
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2014/06/17/timeline-justina-pelletier-case/ckBrf2BtESvVOdZVzt74TM/story.html
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/12/16/month-medical-ordeal-conclusion-still-uncertain/Y7qvYTGsq8QklkxUZvuUgP/story.html
Mark Korson of Tufts wants to be in on round table, but mostly he is not. Globe talks about hospitals not wanting to set up situations which could lead to insurance not being willing to pay.
so here 1/18/14, she is transferred from BCH to a residential center with Tufts doctors expected to take the lead.
I don’t go along with giving her psychotropic drugs. I say that is always wrong. Mistake to say she has a mental illness. She might be showing symptoms from a very negative home environment, but maybe not. Hard to say. But her parents are making things difficult, and this started with Connecticut CPS tracking the case.
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Children’s officials, while declining to discuss specifics about Justina’s case, have repeatedly stressed that the hospital does not keep patients in its care against the direction of the custodial guardian, which, for Justina, has been the child-welfare agency. “In all cases, transfer to a less restrictive setting occurs as soon as an appropriate placement setting becomes available,” the hospital said in a statement.
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So it sounds like to keep her confined the state would have to transfer her custody to the child welfare agency, and they still have not decided that they are going to do this.
So now 3/25/14, the judge grants permanent custody to the state. While not irreversible, this is a most significant step.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2014/03/25/permanent-custody-justina-pelletier-awarded-state-massachusetts/puyPhesGkKE6rGLid2VM2L/story.html
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In his ruling, Johnston, for the first time publicly, stated his belief that Pelletier suffers from “a persistent and severe Somatic Symptom Disorder,” a psychiatric diagnosis that doctors at Children’s reached in early 2013 when the girl was brought there because she had difficulty walking and eating. The parents objected to that diagnosis, leading to accusations of medical child abuse and setting off a monthslong battle over her care.
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Again, I don’t go along with the idea of mental illness. but she may be showing the symptoms of such.
So unless they can show that BCH and it’s doctors really did something wrong, the full responsibility is with this Judge. And one thing you cannot do is sue a judge.
Judges decision:
Click to access SCAN.pdf
I hope everyone can see that this is primarily a class of political views which drives this.
Still Continuing to Explore this
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Finally I feel current about the Justina Pelletier matter, as of 9/11.
But first a little bit more about myself. Consistently I have found that the lowest life form on the planet earth are Commiserators. I practice zero tolerance for Commiserators. And as such I NEVER disclose anything about myself, unless it serves a definite purpose.
And think about it, why does anyone disclose anything about themselves, unless there is a definite purpose to it, unless they want to attract Commiserators.
I want Comrades, not Commiserators. Comrades are people who will fight shoulder to shoulder with you. Commiserators are back stabbers.
So everything I say about Justina Pelletier is still largely conjecture, and subject to re-evaluation, should new information surface. 8/25/16 the Mal Practice and Wrongful Death Tribunal cleared the Pelletier lawsuit against Boston Children’s Hospital and a number of named doctors, including Alice Newton.
So some of this gets into territory where you never really will be able to prove what is happening. They way I look at it, its like voodoo or sympathetic magic. Now that only works against people from the same social and linguistic realm. But inside of an incestuous family, what better place for it to work.
So some people get diagnosed with a heart condition, or with diabetes, or with cancer, and they go on to live for many more decades, sometimes into their 90’s, and with no medical treatment.
But if someone gets hit with a voodoo curse, in a few days they take to their bed, and in a few days more, they die.
You could have all sorts of doctors running tests on them all day long, and the tests would show that they are dying.
Everyone knows that will to live is the real key, in how serious such conditions are and in how long the person lasts.
So while I could never prove this in court, I feel that there was conflict between Justina and her mother Linda, and it probably had something to do with Justina entering adolescence.
Lou and Linda Pelletier go right up my spine, as I sure they did with all the staff at BCH. And I would have far less patience with them than the BCH staff and Judge Johnson did.
Linda, with the girls getting all these ice skating medals and all, strikes me as the quintessential stage mom, rather like Tiger Mother Amy Chua. They believe that they own their children, that their children are an extension of themselves, and that it is their God appointed duty to break their children, to crush them. And I do say that this is felonious child abuse.
So there was some kind of falling out, some kind of bad blood, and it fell on Justina.
This Alice Newton at BCH is ahead of the curve. She does not follow the Munchausen’s By Proxy Model, she follows the newer and far superior Medical Child Abuse Model, coming out of Providence Rhode Island.
This makes no assumptions about abuser parent motives, as the objective is simply to save the child.
They give lots of stats in the book.
Alice Newton and BCH have done 5 parent-ecomies in the last 18 months. I believe that in most of these, and in this Justina Pelletier case, Alice Newton and BCH saved the life of a child, and I want them to continue this fine and outstanding work.
I do believe that Alice Newton and BCH did make two mistakes.
Mistake 1, starting a conflict and not having thought through all the contingencies. Justina should not have been kept for long in BCH, let alone in it’s locked psych ward. What they wanted was to get her into a residential care facility, and in Connecticut. But the Pelletiers made that impossible, threatening to sue any facility that took her. So even though Connecticut CPS was tracking the case, they were unwilling to act until much later. And because BCH does not hold children long term against the wishes of their care takes, Judge Johnson, a man bending over backwards to make sure the did what was right, was cornered in to having to permanently give Massachusetts custody of Justina, even though the evidence available did not yet fully support going that far.
Mistake 2, saying Justina had a mental illness, and giving her some sorts of drugs. There is no such thing as mental illness, and those drugs should be flushed down the toilet. That psychiatrist I understand is gone now, and the new guy takes the view that in such cases the child is showing the effects which get called mental illness, but is not actually mentally ill. Big improvement!
So I believe Alice Newton was running child protection at BCH and another hospital, but now she is just at the other one. I think she did a great job and I hope this does not deter her, nor BCH.
So about the lawsuit, I do want to see as much come out as possible. I want aggressive child protection to continue at BCH, and at hospitals everywhere.
Sometimes a civil jury will just decide to share the wealth, even though the defendant did nothing wrong. If they do, I want them to put it into a trust fund for Justina, but absolutely not to ever give anything to her parents.
It looks like once Judge Johnson gave the state permanent custody, the Pelletiers did back down. And in the end they did submit to family therapy and meet the other terms Massachusetts authorities were demanding. And thus they should have to. And this sort of therapy, where parents are forced to participate, I most definitely do approve of.
Maybe Alice Newton was on a bit of a power trip. I don’t know. But if we are going to stand up to the Christian Right and protect children, we need fearless doctors and fearless attorneys.
So I commend Dr. Alice Newton and the State of Massachusetts for their aggressive action in handling this.
Nomadic
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Still having a hard time coming up to speed on all the issues in this Justina Pelletier case. I find it highly unlikely that anyone at BCH did anything unlawful. Maybe they were a bit too quick to see things in a particular way. But all actions they took were on the authority of the court.
I find it unlikely that any of them did anything tortious. But this does not mean that a jury might not have sympathy with the Pelletiers.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2014/06/17/timeline-justina-pelletier-case/ckBrf2BtESvVOdZVzt74TM/story.html
12/20/2013, judge delays final custody decision and appoints special investigator. Judge hopes to broker deal with Connecticut, where the case had started.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/12/16/month-medical-ordeal-conclusion-still-uncertain/Y7qvYTGsq8QklkxUZvuUgP/story.html
Dr. Mark Korson at Tufts had originally diagnosed Justina with this mitochondrial disease.
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At issue in these cases is also the use of a controversial term, medical child abuse, that can be leveled against any parent who is perceived to be acting against the best interests of his or her child in a medical setting.
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Medical Child Abuse is the new term for what had been MSbP. Usually it means stuff done by parents, but I guess it could also be the doctors. It could be forcing too much treatment, or forcing too little.
So this case had started with Connecticut CPS, and the original Massachusetts hearing in front of Judge Johnson included from Connecticut,
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It included negative comments from Justina’s Connecticut pediatrician about how Linda and Lou had “fired” multiple doctors and “encouraged” the diagnosis of multiple medical problems.
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Now, this Mark Korson had wanted to be included in a round table discussion, but mostly he was not. And Korson admits that this mito illness is the sort of thing which is likely to stir up controversy, and he diagnoses it differently that most doctors do.
So eventually when it became time to discharge Justina from the hospital, there was this large summit. But Korson was not included because they did not want to re-visit the original medical disagreement.
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Among the fresh faces participating in the meeting was Gail Garinger. Few would seem better situated to understand the complexity of Justina’s case. In the 1970s, Garinger worked for Children’s, first as the lawyer assigned to its then-new child protection team and later as general counsel. In 1995, she had been appointed as a juvenile court judge. And in 2008, she was appointed by the governor to the new statewide position of child advocate.
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Yes, this Boston Globe article is, in my opinion, extremely good.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/12/16/month-medical-ordeal-conclusion-still-uncertain/Y7qvYTGsq8QklkxUZvuUgP/story.html
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The state was still insisting that it was not safe to release Justina back to her parents’ care, fearful they would return to focusing on treatment for mitochondrial disease and ignore her psychiatric needs.
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Alice Newton and Carol Jenny, quoted in Boston Globe.
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A couple of months before the summit, Alice Newton, the pediatrician who had served as medical director of the Children’s child protection team during much of Justina’s hospitalization, left the hospital to work full time at Mass. General. She had said that when children who are victims of alleged medical child abuse are removed from their parents’ care, the picture can improve quickly. “In a number of cases where we’ve actually done that, you see the child just blossom in front of your eyes,” she said. Carole Jenny, a national leader in child protection, had made a similar comment in an interview.
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And then
“The rebound that you’re describing, the miraculous emergence that you seem to be suggesting, is not something that happens if you’ve been a child who’s lived in a family where this has gone on for years,” Allison Scobbie-Carroll, director of social work, said in an interview. “What occurs is you have long-term psychiatric ramifications, and to recover from that is, in some cases, a lifelong process.”
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Dr. David DeMaso, the hospital’s noted psychiatrist-in-chief, points out that the mental health field has largely moved away from using somatoform disorder as a useful diagnosis. “It was kind of vague,” he said, noting his preference for “somatic symptoms,” which allows for more flexibility in diagnosing it in conjunction with other illnesses.”
I think the above is very important, not classifying it as a “mental illness”, but rather as just the symptoms of some sort of stress.
to be continued
http://freedomtoexpress.freeforums.org/justinal-pelletier-case-t328.html
Nomadic
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Hi there,
I’m always so interested in your perspective. You clearly care a lot about child abuse, but you don’t seem to be a victim. Like you, I care about it, but I have such a different perspective having been a victim. These doctors are so easy to classify. The prey really understands the predator. I see so much in this case that you don’t.
Have you worked “behind the scenes” in the healthcare system? Do you know what goes on in there? I’m surprised at your relatively naive assessment of all these providers. You seem totally not naive about everything else. Do you know any doctors or nurses personally?
Just like we love day care providers, if a pedophile gets in there, it changes the game. There are so many mentally ill providers who are there for the wrong reasons peppered in with the regular ones that you see dynamics like this – where the rest of the field may inadvertently support the mentally ill provider publically until they figure out they are mentally ill (ref: Roy Meadow himself).
Unlike with day cares, in healthcare, there is not much in the way of screening, so there is little protection. I recently read something about a guy who was sexually molesting patients as a resident, and he became a doctor, it took years and no one stopped him even though they knew about it. People who tried to stop it used the protocols in place, which were weak anyway, and he subverted them. That’s not even MSbP. I’m saying people like that are in there. Also, check out The Good Nurse https://www.amazon.com/Good-Nurse-Medicine-Madness-Murder/dp/1455574139 (talk about a great book!). This nurse admitted to killing like 400 people, and people in healthcare knew, but no one stopped him.
With all that going on, providers are also going to MSbP sometimes and not be stopped. When you have been a child and had to read these people to protect yourself, you are the prey, and you really know the predator. To you, these people look like innocent healthcare providers going about their days. To me, there is quite a complicated dynamic playing out in front of us that deserves to be read carefully.
-Monika
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