Ashya King, in remission from a brain tumor, has a one in two chance of being alive in 5 years. According to a report, with the treatment offered by the hospital, his chances are 80%.
After the “run”, it’s time to take stock. Ashya King, in remission from a brain tumor, returned to her home in Southsea (UK) at the beginning of July after 10 months in the Czech Republic. His parents had taken him from the hospital in Southampton, where he was being treated, so that he could receive other treatment, available abroad. The establishment requested a report from the city’s child welfare service, the first extracts of which were viewed by the British newspaper The Telegraph.
Delayed exams
The month of August 2014 saw the organization of a European manhunt. The alert is issued at Southampton hospital: a young patient with brain cancer, unable to eat on his own, has disappeared. His father took him away. The family is eventually found in Spain. Arrested by the local police, Brett King explains: he wanted his son to access a proton therapy that the English establishment refused.
In September, justice accepts the King family’s request: Ashya will be treated at the Prague-Motol hospital, in the Czech Republic. A few months later, Brett and Naghemeh King share the good news: the little boy is in remission.
But the Southampton hospital wants to shed some light on the case. So he commissioned a report from the city’s Child Safeguarding Board. According to The Telegraph, it totally whitewashes the establishment. The investigation revealed that the parents were preventing or delaying certain examinations even before they fled to Spain. In particular, they would have been reluctant to face a cerebrospinal fluid examination or the insertion of a device to drain excess fluid from the brain.
-30% survival at 5 years
By refusing his son to be treated with chemotherapy, Brett King considerably reduced his chances of survival at 5 years: they are estimated at 80% under triple chemotherapy, which is the current standard treatment, against 50% under proton therapy. Even during the run, the child’s life was endangered. Indeed, he was fed using a nasal tube that the parents were not able to handle in the event of a problem.
Young Ashya’s father is still standing on his feet. “The report fails to say whether or not the decision not to offer chemotherapy to Ashya was made on the advice of healthcare professionals, including a European oncology expert appointed by our general practitioner in Portsmouth,” says Brett King at Telegraph. We want to emphasize once again that our treatment decision was not based on our beliefs as Jehovah’s Witnesses. “
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