"Parents of Ill UK Boy Fight Extradition from Spain" (not ME/CFS case)

[Ren]

London AP: "Parents of Ill UK Boy Fight Extradition from Spain" (1 September 2014)

The parents of a child suffering from a severe brain tumor signaled Monday they would defy efforts to force them to return to Britain, days after their family fled to seek a novel kind of radiation treatment for the 5-year-old boy.

A Spanish judge ordered Brett and Naghemeh King held for 72 hours while documents are translated and doctors are consulted. After that, the judge could extend their time in detention or release them.

The family had fled to Spain in hopes of selling a property to obtain enough cash for a new treatment in the Czech Republic or the United States they hope will help their child. Police pursued them and issued an arrest warrant on suspicion of neglect after Southampton General Hospital realized their patient - 5-year-old Ashya King -was gone, without their consent.

British authorities have made no apology for the warrant and travelled to Spain to question the couple...

But the saga has also raised volatile questions of how much power authorities should have in interfering in some of the most sensitive of questions - and whether it has the right to insist that treatment dictates be followed...

Ashya's grandmother told the BBC that it was an "absolute disgrace" that her son and daughter-in-law were accused of child neglect.

"They (the authorities) are the ones who are cruel because they have taken poor little Ashya who is dying of a brain tumor and they won't let the parents, my son and daughter-in-law, they won't let them see him at all," Patricia King said. "It's terrible. It is so cruel it is unbelievable."

The family has criticized Britain's health care system, saying he has a serious tumor that needs an advanced treatment option called proton beam therapy and that it wasn't being made available to him...

In Britain, proton beam therapy is currently only available to treat certain patients with cancer in their eyes. Other countries, including the U.S., Switzerland and Japan, also use proton beam therapy to treat cancers of the spinal cord, brain, prostate, lung and those that affect children.

Britain's health department announced in 2011 it will build two treatment centers to make proton beam therapy available in London and Manchester from 2018. Until those facilities open, Britain will pay for patients eligible for the therapy to go to the U.S. and Switzerland for treatment.

It wasn't immediately clear why health care officials didn't make this option available to Aysha.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-09-01-06-43-12


Youtube video posted by the family before being forcefully detained (arrested?) by authorities - Father explains how they were bullied and threatened by doctors for asking questions; And, petition to reunite family with son: https://www.change.org/p/police-reunite-ashya-with-his-parents#share

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Edit: The article at the above AP link seems to have been edited since I posted the above extract, with information added (survival info and costs, at least) that is more favorable to NHS' viewpoint.

I don't know how AP usually works, but I don't see a note that the page has been edited since original publication, and I haven't found an archived page on the AP site.

This seems to be the original version, fyi: http://news.yahoo.com/parents-uk-boy-tumor-face-spanish-hearing-095340026.html

The second AP version is here: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/parents-uk-boy-tumor-face-spanish-hearing

 

[Countrygirl]

I signed this a couple of hours ago and sent it to friends. Astonishingly, it has now collected more than 52 000 signatures, but they are asking for another 22 000. I sincerely hope they achieve this. It is a disgraceful situation!

 

[golden]

I was just about to post about this as I have signed the petition - over 60,000 signatures. I am going to make special effort to share it too.

Utterly appalling to be chasing parents around for seeking better treatment than the NHS can offer!!!

All that money spent on the police force to do it too.

Accusing them of kidnapping !! Raiding Grannys home!!!

Medical Mafia in full force again. Disgusting.

 

[WillowJ]

I saw the name mentioned online but hadn't heard the story. Thanks for posting, @Ren

Apparently the family didn't inform the nurses they were leaving, but that was understandable as the oncologist had apparently already threatened to turn them over to social services for asking questions about treatment (after annoying him by disagreeing with him about the proton therapy) !

 

[Min]

It makes me wonder where our taxes that aresupposed to fund our health service actually go. Why is the proton beam therapy not available in this wealthy country?

 

[Ren]

From the original AP article (there seem to be different versions):

In Britain, proton beam therapy is currently only available to treat certain patients with cancer in their eyes. Other countries, including the U.S., Switzerland and Japan, also use proton beam therapy to treat cancers of the spinal cord, brain, prostate, lung and those that affect children.

Britain's health department announced in 2011 it will build two treatment centers to make proton beam therapy available in London and Manchester from 2018. Until those facilities open, Britain will pay for patients eligible for the therapy to go to the U.S. and Switzerland for treatment.

The second version of the article (http://bigstory.ap.org/article/parents-uk-boy-tumor-face-spanish-hearing) said I believe that the doctor didn't recommend this therapy for this particular child's case. The father offers a counter statement in his video, which includes info on risk of negative side effects for the different treatments.

Ethicists say the case is unprecedented, and has raised questions of how much power authorities should have in interfering with the will of parents in questions of life and death. While there have been many previous legal tussles over terminal illness issues, there have been few regarding questions over which treatment should be followed.

In my experience (not in the UK), the statement that the powers that be will pay for care outside your main area of treatment (if they can't provide the service) is an absolute lie.

 

[perchance dreamer]

Ian McEwan has a new novel related to this topic coming out soon. I can't wait. He's a terrific writer:

http://www.amazon.com/Children-Act-...TF8&qid=1409672935&sr=1-1&keywords=ian+mcewan

 

[bertiedog]

Looks like as bit of common sense might be going on at last. All that needs to happen now is for the Spanish court to release the parents. The e-petition helped things along I am sure.

Pam

 

[Countrygirl]

I have just heard that the parents are going to be held in jail again tonight and will appear before a Spanish court tomorrow.

I have also read that the parents are going to sue Southampton hospital. I haven't had that confirmed though.

 

[Ren]

London, AP "UK Withdrawing Warrent for Ill Boy's Parents"

British prosecutors are dropping the case against a couple who ended up in a Spanish jail after they tried to get treatment abroad for their son's severe brain tumor, authorities said Tuesday.

Brett and Naghemeh King were pursued by police after they took 5-year-old Ashya out of a hospital in southern England against doctors' advice and traveled to Spain, where they planned to sell a property to pay for proton beam radiation therapy in the Czech Republic or the U.S. They were arrested on a British warrant on suspicion of cruelty to a person under 16 years of age, and are in custody in a jail near Madrid - while their son is in a hospital in Malaga.

"No further action will be taken against Mr. and Mrs. King and we are now in the process of communicating this decision to the Spanish authorities," British prosecutors said in a statement, adding they were doing it so the family can be reunited as soon as possible...

Police said the arrest warrant was applied for so that Ashya could be found as soon as possible, but the situation is now "not right."

"Our intent was to secure his safety, not to deny him family support at this particularly challenging time in his life," Hampshire Police chief constable Andy Marsh said...

(Not sure I believe this!)

A Spanish court spokesman declined immediate comment on when the parents could be released, but a lawyer for the couple said the judge has the options of releasing them immediately or having them stay overnight in jail to be released at the previously-scheduled court hearing at 11 a.m. (0900 GMT, 5 a.m. EDT) Wednesday.

"The only reason for them to stay in prison has expired," lawyer Francesco Luca Caronna told The Associated Press. "If the system works, they should open the doors to the jail immediately."

Edit: London, AP: "Ill UK Boy's Parents Freed from Custody in Spain"

 

[Gingergrrl]

I don't understand why parents are not allowed to leave the country to pursue medical care for their own child if they choose to? I understand if the parents were not in agreement and one took the child without the others consent but that is not the case here!

I had a former co-worker who did proton therapy for prostate cancer at Loma Linda and he was completely cured. If the family can travel to another country and pay privately for this treatment, why is that a crime?

 

[Valentijn]

I don't understand why parents are not allowed to leave the country to pursue medical care for their own child if they choose to? I understand if the parents were not in agreement and one took the child without the others consent but that is not the case here!

I had a former co-worker who did proton therapy for prostate cancer at Loma Linda and he was completely cured. If the family can travel to another country and pay privately for this treatment, why is that a crime?

I think the "crime" was their failure to respect the authority of the doctor. 2nd opinions and reasonable disagreements are not allowed.

 

[Ren]

Just what I was writing, Valentijn. -- I suspect the "crime" is to challenge the authority of doctors and insurers.

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Edit: First and foremost of course are positive thoughts for this family and that this child is able to pull through.

That said, I wonder what (if any) legal implications this fiasco has raised.

For example, again: In the video from the parents, the father emphasized that they were pursuing a treatment which had fewer negative side effects / less risk of (serious) harm.

The AP articles don't mention this. They just generally repeat that the UK hospital said such-and-such positive about the child's survival rates with the current UK treatment protocol.

Questions then which come to mind: When two (or more) treatments are available, does the State have a legal / ethical obligation to provide access to the treatment method which offers the least negative side effects / least risk of (serious) harm?

Also, one of the AP articles said that the treatment sought by the parents will be offered in the UK in the future, but facilities aren't ready at this time; Until facilities are ready, patients who "need" this treatment will (allegedly) receive this treatment in a country outside the UK.

So an additional question is: Are harms/risk of harms considered when "need" is evaluated?

See also, http://bigstory.ap.org/article/uk-deputy-leader-criticizes-ill-boy-case