Ashya King

[Lex]

I don't know whether Ashya was receiving the best available treatment or not, but dragging him out of hospital, and going on the run with the possibility of him receiving no treatment at all for several days or weeks stinks of stupidity and irresponsible parenting.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-29009883

[rebbonk]

Fair point Lex, but should state control trump parental rights?

I have no answers, but am a little concerned here at what appears to be a bullying state.

[Margaret]

It is so heartbreaking and cruel for the parents and their little boy, I pray that he will get the right treatment and pull through.

[Gladys]

If you see the 10 minute long video that Mr King posted on line at the weekend all the way through and then hear what the two named Doctors said to him, it will show you why he and his wife chose to take their little boy away from Southampton and the UK's controlling medical care. They were told in no uncertain terms that there was nothing more that could be done for Aysha. They were not offered the opportunity of a second opinion which is everyone's right. With that in mind and having done their own research found that the proton beam therapy would be beneficial and found the Czech clinic that will do it. Their mission in spain is to sell the property they own there to raise the funds for this treatment. The clinic have said they will get on with the treatment and payment can be made later.

From personal experience of the Hospital in question and from my own Daughter's brain tumour treatment, I can tell you that we too had to battle with the Doctors there and I had to make a stand against them. I insisted on a second opinion which I got from Great Ormond Street which supported my decision making on what should be done. Southampton is a huge Trust and it is the Neuro Centre for the whole of the South of England , the Channel Islands and Northern Europe. As such, it controls all Trials into childhood brain tumours and cancers. ' Trials ' are the operative word. If you are placed into one , it doesn't mean that is the one that will cure. In other words, its like experimenting on a captive audience which doesn't actually have any other place to go or as in Aysha's situation, he did. His parents found out for themselves and so did I. My Daughter is a grown adult, she lives a full and normal life but with the legacy left by the radiotherapy. Proton therapy was around back then but only in The John Hopkins Centre in America. It was out of our reach in those days. I hope Mr C acts on this matter without further delay. These parents are not criminals and should not be in prison but with their very sick little boy.

Sign the e-petition to reunite this little boy with his parents. Its being given to Mr C today.

http://www.change.org/p/police-reunite-ashya-with-his-parents?share_id=yFaVzGLrhG&utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition

[Margaret]

I don't normally do online petitions, but I have signed this one.

I can't believe the stupidity and cruelty of separating this child from his parents. It's disgusting how they have criminilized the parents for loving their child!
I am livid! :mad:

[Gladys]

Me too , for that and for the fact they are being treated like criminals which they definitely are not. Its a total nonsense to imprison them while the whole debacle is a series of shambolic blunders on behalf of the Hospital, Hampshire Police and Portsmouth City Council.

[Gladys]

Yes, at last- sense and hope. The Spanish have acted and are removing the arrest warrants. Mr C and Nick Clegg have offered their support for their plight. Furthermore, The Health Minister is offering them the support of a top Oncologist who will fly to Malaga to talk them through the best treatment options. They are also saying that the family can continue to Prague to the Proton Therapy Clinic if they have the funds to do so.

[Margaret]

Yes, at last- sense and hope. The Spanish have acted and are removing the arrest warrants. Mr C and Nick Clegg have offered their support for their plight. Furthermore, The Health Minister is offering them the support of a top Oncologist who will fly to Malaga to talk them through the best treatment options. They are also saying that the family can continue to Prague to the Proton Therapy Clinic if they have the funds to do so.




I am very glad to here that Gladys. Thank God common sense prevails.

[rebbonk]

I'm glad for the family, but as for the politicians that have gotten involved, I fear it is all stage management to put them in a good light, when in actual fact they ought be hanging their collective miserable heads in shame for allowing the circumstances around this case to occur in the first place.

[Margaret]

I agree, you are right on the button there, rebbonk.

[Lex]

Unfortunately, the state does occasionally have to intervene to protect children - that's why social services exist (they do the job properly once in a while, despite what the BBC/Sky/Daily Mail tell you, and with the occasional kick up the proverbial). It turns out that Ashya's parents did have the equipment needed to provide him with nutrition, but I still feel that keeping him in hospital is the best option until they are in a position to get the second opinion as to whether the treatment they want for him will actually be the best option.

[Gladys]

Social Services went into over drive in this case. Mr King had repeatedly told the Doctor's he was taking his son for better treatment. He had emailed the Doctor in charge of his son's case but this Doctor ignored these and threatened the King's with the fact they would get a Court Order making Ashya a ward of Court to force their mode of treatment on the child. In that they filled the parents with dread and fear. If you read about the treatment on this link about the type of tumour he has, it clearly says ' proton beam therapy ' may be helpful That is all they wanted to seek out because Southampton refused it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medulloblastoma

Don't forget that the Doctors as reported on Mr King's video also told the parents that no more could be done for Ashya. If this was you, what would you have done? I know I'd have done exactly what the Kings did.

[rebbonk]

Accepting Lex's point, there are times when the authorities do need to step in and all too often social services are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

However, in this case I really do think there has been an abuse of power from the authorities, not to mention sheer bloody mindedness in some quarters. The fact that the Czech Republic was named in a court order last week as a possible destination for the family (and not any neighbouring countries such as Germany) shows that the hospital and other authorities knew full well that the intention was to seek treatment outside the NHS.

Southampton General oppose this, they request the boy be removed from the control of his parents, denying they knew where the family was heading, and put out a pile of disinfo to turn the public against this family.

To be honest the proton treatment may not be of much better outcome, but the people involved in this fiasco have behaved disgracefully.

It seems the rights of the patient and his lawful parents have been trampled on to satisfy some seriously sensitive egos.

I wonder how many other cases like this there are that we simply don't get to hear about?

[Gladys]

Too right and well said, Rebbonk. Other cases are out there; my daughter's is one example. A school friend of hers had the misfortune of having a tumur at the same time she did and she went through the system as its protocol directed. She has suffered mobility problems and a severe facial palsy ever since due to the ear to ear opening of her skull which caused her nerves to be severed. The fact she was used ( as all are) to teach medical students and junior Doctors the methods of neuro-surgery are key to the issues she is left with. She has had to have operations aiming to restore her facial palsy but these have not been a total success. I am so thankful that I stopped them doing this to my Daughter although they did insist she had a less invasive technique done to obtain a (not needed) biopsy. They withheld the radiotherapy until I agreed so it was them against little old me all the way. I was between a rock and a hard place filled with fear and feeling abused by them.GOS told me they didn't and wouldn't do a biopsy as it wasn't needed in her case. It was a case of just getting on with the radiotherapy. They offered to have her radiation treatment done there but with 6 weeks of it every day , it would have been too much and totally impractical not that being practical really comes into it when you are talking life saving. Back then , I battled alone and was being beaten down by the time wasting, the fear the tumor was getting ahead of the battle over what to do etc and by them.She went on to have the radiotherapy after the biopsy at Southampton however which has left lasting life long effects affecting her memory and her hormone system. Proton beam therapy would have minimised these effects but as she says- ' I'm alive and OK.'

[Lex]

I just want to know the name of the PR bod who seems to be filling Max Clifford's boots:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-29086267
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/11074256/Mystery-donor-offers-to-fund-Ashyas-proton-beam-cancer-treatment.html