The Ashya King saga, the child smuggled out of hospital by his parents last summer in England, is coming to an end. The family returned to the country yesterday, having had the child treated in Prague.
It is the end of an eventful soap opera. The family of little Ashya King returned with him to England yesterday, to their hometown of Southampton. Last year, the five-year-old was kidnapped by his parents from the hospital where he was being treated for a brain tumor (medulloblastoma).
His tumor had been successfully removed by surgeons at Southampton Hospital. But Brett and Naghemeh King, parents of Ashya King, felt that the radiation therapy after the operation was not effective for their son. They wanted him to benefit from a different treatment, accessible in particular in Prague: proton therapy. These treatments aim to destroy cancer cells by irradiating them with a beam of protons, focused on the lesions, and therefore sparing healthy tissues, in particular the heart and the liver.
The problem: Proton therapy costs nearly £ 100,000 per patient, and is not offered by the UK’s national health system, NH. This is why Ashya’s parents smuggled him out of the hospital shortly after his operation to go abroad for treatment.
No fears
This story had many twists and turns: caught several weeks later by the police, in Spain, the Kings spent more than 24 hours in prison before being released, then authorized by the British justice to go to the Czech Republic in order to have their son treated.
Today, little Ashya is recovering quietly. He would be completely healed, and very happy to return to his country. The Kings had not returned with their son since the episodes last summer, fearing that Ashya would be removed from their care and placed in foster care.
But Ashya’s father said he was prepared to shoulder any consequences, and that there was little to fear from the authorities. In addition, Southampton Hospital has launched a process to gain a better understanding of how the little boy’s case was handled internally by its teams. The report is expected in the fall.
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