[rael-science] Cancer boy's mother defiant after court rules he should have radiotherapy‏

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2251927/Cancer-boys-mother-Sally-Roberts-defiant-court-rules-Neon-radiotherapy.html

I'll sue them all, even my ex-husband: Cancer boy's mother defiant
after court rules he should have radiotherapy

PUBLISHED: 23:10 GMT, 21 December 2012 | UPDATED: 12:17 GMT, 22 December 2012

A court has ruled against her. Public sympathy is waning. But the
seven-year-old's mother is still spitting defiance.
Sally Roberts has lost her legal battle to delay her seven-year-old
son Neon receiving radiotherapy treatment for cancer until more
doctors had been consulted

Sally Roberts has lost her legal battle to delay her seven-year-old
son Neon receiving radiotherapy treatment for cancer until more
doctors had been consulted

Sally Roberts could never win. In the end, her fight became a race
against time to find a cure for cancer, pain-free and without
side-effects.

But this week it became evident that her quest to find that elusive
panacea for her seven-year-old cancer-stricken son, Neon, was one
conducted not in a scientific laboratory, but on the internet search
engine, Google.

Under scrutiny in court, the miracle treatments she had read about on
the internet were dismissed as unproven, experimental therapies that
are the recourse of the desperate and dying.

Yesterday, a High Court judge ruled that Neon must undergo
radiotherapy as part of his treatment for a malignant brain tumour.

His mother has controversially opposed radiotherapy because of its
debilitating side-effects, which include reduced IQ, tremors,
decreased height and loss of fertility.

But Mr Justice Bodey told the court: ‘The mother has been through a
terrible time. This sort of thing is every parent’s nightmare.

‘But I am worried that her judgment has gone awry on the question of
the seriousness of the threat Neon faces.’

He added ‘One cannot enjoy one’s quality of life if one isn’t alive’,
and observed that, regarding the balance of side-effects versus death:
‘It tilts well in favour of radiotherapy and chemotherapy.’

The judge hoped, however, that Mrs Roberts would accept the judgment
because ‘he [Neon] needs both his parents to support him’.

But that is unlikely to happen. After the ruling, Mrs Roberts told the
Mail her legal team has made an application to appeal against the
decision and said she will sue if Neon does suffer side-effects as a
result of the treatment.

In an emotional interview, she said: ‘I will be holding them all
accountable — everyone who has been involved in his treatment. The
judge, the doctors, my former husband — the lot of them. I will
definitely hold Ben (Neon’s father) responsible. He felt the fear of
the doctors.

‘If there are side-effects,’ she faltered, ‘obviously death. But also
hearing loss, blindness, thyroid problems. If they cabbage him at all,
if he doesn’t last five years, I will hold all of them accountable.’

Mrs Roberts, 37, added that Neon would have wanted to ‘take his
chances as well’ with a different type of treatment.

‘I’ve been told I’m an irresponsible parent. I feel backed into a
corner. It is taking away my human rights as a mother. Neon is my son.
How dare the state impose their treatments on my son? They are not
allowing me as the mother to make these decisions.

Scroll down for video
Sally Roberts, pictured here with her twins Neon and Electra, is
threatening to take legal action against doctors, the judge and her
former husband if the boy suffers any side-effects

Sally Roberts, pictured here with her twins Neon and Electra, is
threatening to take legal action against doctors, the judge and her
former husband if the boy suffers any side-effects

‘If I’d been given the extra time I asked for to research these other
therapies in more detail, things could have turned out differently.’

The thought of Neon having radiotherapy continues to ‘horrify’ her,
and she is unable to contemplate the day, next month, when he must
undergo it.

‘I will cry that day. I won’t be able to sleep the night before. I
don’t know if I could actually take him there. I don’t know how I will
cope mentally or manage to do it.’

Mrs Roberts has come out fighting, but it is a fight she undertakes
alone. Neon’s father, Ben, from whom Sally separated 18 months ago,
has given his consent for radiotherapy and is supported by his parents
and sister.

Sally’s parents, originally supportive of their daughter, are anxious
that radiotherapy proceed, afraid that yet more delay will affect
Neon’s prospects of recovery.

Neon’s plight has become a talking point across the world, and opinion
is sharply divided.

To some, Mrs Roberts is a misguided mother who is risking her son’s
life. Others agree with her assertion that cancer care in Britain is
‘stuck in a rut’.

Yesterday’s ruling — and Mrs Roberts’s declaration of war against all
those who have opposed her wishes — was the culmination of two months
of uncertainty and anguish.

It began in October when Neon was diagnosed with a grade 4
medullo-blastoma brain tumour. Days later, he underwent an eight-hour
operation to remove the growth, which was the size of a 50 pence
piece.

On December 1, two NHS Trusts sought an emergency order to compel Mrs
Roberts to allow Neon to have radiotherapy after she failed to bring
him to two hospital appointments.

In response, she went on the run with her son. An appeal to find her
was made through the media and Neon’s plight made headlines worldwide.

The High Court hearing resumed, with Sally in attendance, on December
7, but was adjourned until this week after an MRI scan on Neon
indicated evidence of a tumour still present.

Mrs Roberts was told by doctors they needed to operate again urgently,
but after initially giving her consent to surgery, Mrs Roberts
withdrew it on Tuesday morning — it fell to the High Court judge to
decide that it must go ahead.

On the same day, she sacked her legal team and hired Imran Khan, the
high-profile human rights lawyer. An 11th-hour appeal against the
ruling to allow surgery was rejected.

Neon had a seven-hour operation on Wednesday. Mrs Roberts is immensely
proud of her son’s bravery.
Neon, seven, has a malignant brain tumour

Neon, seven, has a malignant brain tumour

‘He’s such a little warrior,’ she smiles. ‘He showed no fear at all.
He’s an incredible little boy.

‘During the operation, I waited in a coffee shop opposite the
hospital, making phone calls about the case and the treatments I’m
trying to find out about.

‘When he came round after the operation, Ben was the first to see him,
and he passed out with relief. Ben was with his new girlfriend, and as
only two people are allowed in the room at a time, I had to wait about
15 minutes to see Neon.

‘When I saw him, he smiled and said: “Mummy.” He was a bit groggy
because of the morphine, but he was alert.

‘I gave him lots of kisses and cuddles. It was such a huge relief that
he was ok, and that he was talking.’

Neon’s parents had been warned that the surgery carried a 10 to 25 per
cent risk of ‘mutism’ — speech problems that develop immediately after
or in the days following surgery.

Neon will spend Christmas in hospital. The night before the operation,
he opened some presents. He will receive more presents on Christmas
Day and further gifts, which his family feel he richly deserves, when
he returns home after a week or so.

Where will he go? Since being located with his mother at the home of a
friend in East Grinstead, West Sussex, after going on the run, Neon
has been staying with his father at his flat in London’s
Knightsbridge.

His twin sister, Elektra, has also been staying with 34-year-old Mr
Roberts since Neon’s diagnosis.
Following the court hearing, Neon’s mother was eager for him to return
home with her to Brighton, East Sussex, but her husband’s lawyers have
demanded that Neon live with his father while he undergoes
radiotherapy treatment, due to begin in January. Mr Roberts fears —
perhaps not without justification — that his wife will disappear with
Neon again.

Mrs Roberts has agreed reluctantly to the demand that Neon live with
his father while he undergoes the radiotherapy, as long as she can see
him as often as she wishes.

Last week, however, before the High Court hearing resumed, we put this
poser to Mrs Roberts.

What will she do if she finds a hospital in, say, America, where
doctors tell her they can treat Neon successfully without
radiotherapy?

‘I’ll take him to America,’ she replied. ‘But I won’t do a runner.’

But could there be any other way of getting there? It is unlikely Mr
Roberts will let Neon out of his sight.

He believes radiotherapy is the best — or the least worst — option for
his child. For any parent, the prospect of giving your child a
treatment that is going to have serious side-effects is an impossible
dilemma.

Neon, though suffering from a life-threatening illness, has been
relatively well since his first operation in October.

Seeing this seemingly healthy little boy, running around and playing
with his twin sister, has made it impossible for his mother to
contemplate a treatment that could ‘change’ him somehow.

And his apparent wellness perhaps gave her false hope, too, of his
prospects of cure. ‘The first operation knocked him sideways and it
was heart-breaking to see what he went through,’ says Mrs Roberts.

‘But he recovered incredibly quickly. It’s a miracle, really. He was
running about and wanting to play like any other child.’

Despite the apparent success of the first operation, the MRI scan on
December 7 showed evidence of a tumour.

Doctors initially told Mrs Roberts it was a regrowth, but a doctor
from whom Mrs Roberts sought a second opinion said it looked like
residual tissue from the original tumour.

‘When Ben and I were told the cancer had come back, it was as though
I’d been punched in the stomach,’ recalls Mrs Roberts. ‘And now Neon’s
had to go through it all again.

‘I can see why the judge reached the decision for surgery, with the
evidence he had before him.

‘But I believe we could have waited a week for me to get further
opinions from abroad. It would have given me peace of mind. But Neon
is amazing. There’s no self-pity, no complaining — he just gets on
with it. I’m still confused as to whether they found cancer.

‘In court, we were told a cancer nodule, residual tumour, had been
found and removed, but I didn’t find any mention of cancer in Neon’s
medical notes.’

Fearful about radiotherapy from the outset, Mrs Roberts says she
‘freaked out’ when one of Neon’s doctors told her, during a discussion
about the treatment: ‘You have to fry the whole brain.’

She believes doctors are colluding in a tacit conspiracy in which no
one feels able to speak out about inadequacies in British cancer care.

‘They won’t say anything against each other,’ she says. For the past
fortnight, she has spent much of her time at her computer, researching
cancer treatments.

‘I have been digging and digging, finding experts. Then you have to
get hold of them and send the scans. It takes time.

‘People are saying: “You’re denying your son treatment.” It’s become a mantra.

‘But I strongly believe there are other things out there that can help
that boy. This isn’t just a mother’s intuition — it’s fact.

‘Of course, you want to trust the doctors and think they are doing
their best by your child. They call it the UK gold standard — but gold
for who?

‘Death by doctor — it’s a very common occurrence.’

Throughout, Mrs Roberts has insisted she has found other options for
her son and simply needs more time to explore them further.

The list, read out in court, included immunotherapy,
radioimmunotherapy and photodynamic therapy.

One by one, they were dismissed as unproven and experimental by an
expert doctor giving evidence, and it was said it would be ‘completely
unethical’ to consider giving them to Neon in place of a proven
treatment (radiotherapy).

Mrs Roberts hopes to counter the effects of the radiotherapy with
other therapies.

She hopes to raise the £20,000 needed to buy Neon a hyperbaric oxygen
chamber (oxygen therapy is said to aid the healing of brain
injuries).

She has already bought him an infrared blanket — ‘It’s like a sleeping
bag, but it detoxifies the body. If he must have the radiation
treatment, it will be an integrated approach with oxygen therapy, high
nutrition and detoxifying.’

She remains convinced that cancer care in Britain is ‘lagging behind’
other countries.

‘They (the doctors) keep showing me this study from the Forties about
radiotherapy. Haven’t we moved on since then?

‘The whole ethos of the approach to cancer treatment should be
reviewed and become much more open so that parents can be given a much
more comprehensive understanding of treatment protocols available to
optimise their children’s outcome.

‘In years to come, people will look back at the horrific suffering
caused to children with cancer and wonder why such a civilised society
with so much technology at its disposal couldn’t have protected them.

‘All I have asked for is more time to be as well informed as I
possibly can be, and not be panicked into a decision that may be
injurious to my son’s life and his functional capacities in future
life.’

That extra time has been denied Mrs Roberts. In January, Neon must
begin six weeks of radiotherapy, followed by 18 months of chemotherapy
— several courses given in stages. It will be gruelling for Neon and
for his parents, heart-breaking to watch.

Mrs Roberts’s legal battle continues, but the focus now must be on
Neon and his recovery.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WARNING FROM RAEL: For those who don't use their intelligence at its
full capacity, the label "selected by RAEL" on some articles does not
mean that I agree with their content or support it. "Selected by RAEL"
means that I believe it is important for the people of this planet to
know about what people think or do, even when what they think or do is
completely stupid and against our philosophy. When I selected articles
in the past about stupid Christian fundamentalists in America praying
for rain, I am sure no Rael-Science reader was stupid enough to believe
that I was supporting praying to change the weather. So, when I select
articles which are in favor of drugs, anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish, racist,
revisionist, or inciting hatred against any group or religion, or any
other stupid article, it does not mean that I support them. It just
means that it is important for all human beings to know about them.
Common sense, which is usually very good among our readers, is good
enough to understand that. When, like in the recent articles on drug
decriminalization, it is necessary to make it clearer, I add a comment,
which in this case was very clear: I support decriminalizing all drugs,
as it is stupid to throw depressed and sad people (as only depressed and
sad people use drugs) in prison and ruin their life with a criminal
record. That does not mean that there is any change to the Message which
says clearly that we must not use any drug except for medical purposes.
The same applies to the freedom of expression which must be absolute.
That does not mean again of course that I agree with anti-Jews,
anti-Semites, racists of any kind or anti-Raelians. But by knowing your
enemies or the enemies of your values, you are better equipped to fight
them. With love and respect of course, and with the wonderful sentence
of the French philosopher Voltaire in mind: "I disapprove of what you
say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".

-- 
-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ethics" is simply a last-gasp attempt by deist conservatives and
orthodox dogmatics to keep humanity in ignorance and obscurantism,
through the well tried fermentation of fear, the fear of science and
new technologies.

There is nothing glorious about what our ancestors call history, 
it is simply a succession of mistakes, intolerances and violations.

On the contrary, let us embrace Science and the new technologies
unfettered, for it is these which will liberate mankind from the
myth of god, and free us from our age old fears, from disease,
death and the sweat of labour.

Rael
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tell your friends that they can subscribe to this list by sending an email to:
subscribe@rael-science.org
- - -
To unsubscribe, send an email to:
unsubscribe@rael-science.org
- - -