In a Newsweek interview with The Battle for Justina Pelletier director David Metzler, he spoke about his time interviewing Justina in 2022. It was the first time she spoke openly about her situation. Their conversation occurred mere months after Justina suffered a stroke that "left her unable to walk and saw her struggle with speech."

"It was wonderful to have Justina; we find Justina to be a real inspiration," David said. "She's got a lot of health struggles and struggles to speak now, but I always felt like she communicated a lot with her eyes, and I always felt like she's just such a resilient person."

For David, he felt it was important that Justina be able to share her story, especially since she is now an adult with nearly a decade's worth of processing under her.

And she certainly had a lot to work through. When Justina was taken from her parents, she ended up in a psychiatric ward for nine months. Her parents would eventually sue the hospital and during the trial, Justina testified about her experience. WBUR reported that "doctors began limiting her contact with her family to an hour of visitation and 20 minutes of phone calls per week." Her family couldn't ask how she was doing and knew nothing about her treatment. The staff was also cruel and abusive.