BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) – Justina Pelletier, a hospitalized 15-year-old at the center of a custody battle, has been transferred from Children' Hospital to a different facility.
The Connecticut teen has been treated at Children's for almost a year and now has been moved to a residential program at Wayside Youth and Family Support Network in Framingham, according to The Boston Globe. She was previously in Children's locked psychiatric unit for treatment.
The Department of Children and Families has said that Children's doctors will continue her treatment until the state agency decides on alternate care.
Pelletier was diagnosed with mitochondrial disease years ago – a condition causing muscle pain and weakness. Then, almost a year ago, she was admitted to Children's with the flu.
At the hospital, her parents say a different set of doctors diagnosed her with "somatoform disorder," in short, saying she suffered from a mental illness, not mitochondrial disease.
When her parents, Lou and Linda Pelletier disagreed and asked for a second opinion, they lost custody of their daughter. DCF was called in after just four days. The parents haven't had custody since last February.
Hearings to potentially reverse the custody ruling were delayed several times. At a hearing last week, a judge ordered that a plan be set to have Pelletier moved to a transitional facility. Tufts Medical Center doctors may be taking over her case, but other options are being looked at, the Globe reported.
For more: bostonglobe.com.