Judge Orders Teen to Cancer Treatment

Breitbart.com ^ | 7/21/06 | Sonja Barisic

[Huntress]

A judge ruled Friday that a 16-year-old boy fighting to use alternative treatment for his cancer must report to a hospital by Tuesday and accept treatment that doctors deem necessary, the family's attorney said.

The judge also found Starchild Abraham Cherrix's parents were neglectful for allowing him to pursue alternative treatment of a sugar-free, organic diet and herbal supplements supervised by a clinic in Mexico, lawyer John Stepanovich said.

Jay and Rose Cherrix of Chincoteague on Virginia's Eastern Shore must continue to share custody of their son with the Accomack County Department of Social Services, as the judge had previously ordered, Stepanovich said.

The parents were devastated by the new order and planned to appeal, the lawyer said.

Stepanovich said he will ask a higher court on Monday to stay enforcement of the order, which requires the parents to take Abraham to Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters in Norfolk and to give the oncologist their written legal consent to treat their son for Hodgkin's disease.

"I want to caution all parents of Virginia: Look out, because Social Services may be pounding on your door next when they disagree with the decision you've made about the health care of your child," Stepanovich said.

Phone calls to the Cherrix home went unanswered.

The lawyer declined to release the ruling, saying juvenile court Judge Jesse E. Demps has sealed much of the case.

Social Services officials have declined to comment, citing privacy laws.

After three months of chemotherapy last year made him nauseated and weak, Abraham rejected doctors' recommendations to go through a second round when he learned early this year that his Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the lymph nodes, was active again.

A social worker then asked a judge to require the teen to continue conventional treatment. In May, the judge issued a temporary order finding Abraham's parents neglectful and awarding partial custody to the county, with Abraham continuing to live at home with his four siblings.

[NRA2BFree]

I saw this boy and his dad interviewed on TV the other night. It's a pretty sad case. The kid got pretty sick after the other treatment and he doesn't want to go through it again. His folks are letting him make that decision. I've got mixed feelings about it. He might die without the treatment, but if he takes it, he's going to get real sick again. Prayers go out to the entire family. It's a difficult situation they're all in.

[LibertyRocks]

Can this teen apply for Emancipation of some sort?

[spinestein]

[....parking blocks away to maneuver around the doctors Mercedes ......]

[[I'm a doctor and I drive a 1994 Honda Accord. I'm frugal.]]


I'm a factory worker living paycheck to paycheck and I drive a Mercedes. But I'm frugal and it's a 1978 Mercedes.

[kaylar]

I thought you had to have reached your 17th birthday to become an emancipated minor (at least that's what it is here). Hopefully the appeals system will drag out this case to the point where the young man's ability to make his own decisions about health care will be recognized and honored by the legal system-ie, when he's so old-17 or 18-they have to leave him alone.

[spinestein]

[Can this teen apply for Emancipation of some sort?]



Good question. I think if he gets married, he's automatically emancipated and is a legal adult able to make his own medical decisions.

Does anyone out there know the law well enough to determine if this is true?

[Polybius]

I'm a factory worker living paycheck to paycheck and I drive a Mercedes. But I'm frugal and it's a 1978 Mercedes.

One of our cars is a 1979 Toyota Tercel. :-)

[spinestein]

I drove one of those for two years. Gawd I hated that thing.

[spinestein]

If you're a doctor and you're driving those cars I'm assuming you are a family doctor.

If you'd gotten into cardiology you could have had a Mercedes and a Lexus by now, and be working on the Porsche.

</:^] Just kidding.

[Polybius]

If you're a doctor and you're driving those cars I'm assuming you are a family doctor. If you'd gotten into cardiology you could have had a Mercedes and a Lexus by now, and be working on the Porsche. < / :^] Just kidding.

No, I'm a radiologist which is right up there with cardiology.

I just happened to follow the "Millionaire Next Door" lifestyle before the book ever came out.

I'm "frugal".

Or, as my uncle once put it, "He's so tight with his money that he has tiny little eagle shit pellets in his pockets from squeezing his quarters so hard!" :-)

Growing up in the 1960's with very little money as a Cuban refugee after your family loses everything in Cuba, and having my Dad die of cancer when I was 16, instills that Depression Era frugality that most of my non-Cuban Baby Boomers friends never seemed to have.

For some things......a nice house, nice family vacations, a good education for the kids, activities for the kids.......I will spend whatever I have to spend to get good quality but at good value.

For other things.........cars, designer clothes, status symbols, etc.......I could not care less.

As long as the 1994 Honda and the 1979 Tercel get me from my house to the Hospital parking lot, I do not care what they look like.

As a matter of fact, parking my 1979 Toyota Tercel next to the brand new surgeon who owns a new Lexus but is in debt up to his eyeballs is a form of reverse snobbery. It sends out the message that he still has to buy his status but I don't. ;-)

[HungarianGypsy]

Another alternative medicine story. My husband has gout. He found out about it in 1995. When he went to the emergency room he had to be wheeled in because his toe hurt so badly. The prescribed medication didn't make his foot feel better, but did keep him in the bathroom for a long time. A woman at his job suggested he try tea tree oil. He ditched the medicine and tried the tea tree. It worked within a day. Since then he keeps a supply of cherries (another good gout fighter) and tea tree around to keep it from reoccuring too badly.

[metmom]

You said it there. Since when did the state get into the business of forcing people to accept medical treatment that they didn't want? Sad, but they didn't do that for poor Terri.

I'd just love it if God healed him with no further treatment.

[metmom]

ping

[little jeremiah]

I've been avoiding this thread - you're like my conscience! I feel sorry for that poor boy. Why can't the poor boy and his parents do what they think best? So what if he has a weird name. Big deal. Archibald is a weird name too.

I've seen a good friend die of the same cancer (a young woman of 28). Actually she didn't die of cancer, she died of chemotherapy. And it was not pretty or nice. I decided then and there that if I were ever diagnosed with cancer I would never, EVER take chemotherapy. Surgery? Maybe. Radiation? Maybe, if it worked with that kind of cancer. But chemo? Not a chance, ever.

[metmom]

What difference does it make of you die from the cancer or the chemo, you still die. Last I heard, death is a one per deal. Happens to everyone, just a matter of when. And who's to say that even if he's forced to undergo this and gets *cured*, that he won't die from an automobile accident?

The judiciary should not be in the position of handing out life and death. A judge can't order a convicted murderer to be executed but can order the death sentence for someone like Terri Shiavo. How perverted.

[metmom]

Prayers go out to the entire family. It's a difficult situation they're all in.

My cousins husband went through chemo and all and was in remission. The outlook was good. He got a cold, it turned into pneumonia and he was gone in days. He had no immune system or strength left to fight it.

This kid is old enough to know what he wants. It's his body and his life. Funny, if it were a girl, she could be out on her own with a baby. They'd let her be emancipated.

[little jeremiah]

Even if the teenager is considered too young to know how he wants to be treated, his parents' wishes should take precendence.

There's a difference between parental neglect or cruelty and choosing to treat an illness with non-AMA methods.

[cyborg]

nanny state government...we know what's best for you not you or your parents!

[Theophilus]

How did social services become privy? Look for a possible HIPAA violation here.

[little jeremiah]

Hello, Cyborg! Or should I say, Mrs. Petronski?

[HiTech RedNeck]

If you're feeling so great, why you want a doctor at all?