Posted on 06/09/2005 1:06:46 PM PDT by clearsight
Texas Officials, Parents Spar Over Girl's Cancer Treatment Parents Think Doctors Have Not Been Upfront About Treatment Options
UPDATED: 11:41 am CDT June 9, 2005 CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- A judge has postponed until Friday a ruling that could prevent doctors from treating a 12-year-old girl who was taken from her parents after Texas officials accused them of not doing enough to treat her cancer.
It's the latest maneuver in a dispute over the medical care of Katie Wernecke, reported KPRC-TV in Houston. Her parents, Michele and Edward Wernecke, said their daughter's Hodgkin's disease is in remission and she doesn't need radiation treatment after undergoing a round of chemotherapy.
Texas Child Protective Services said her life could be in jeopardy if chemotherapy and radiation treatments don't resume. Speaking Thursday on NBC's "Today" show, Michele Wernecke said her daughter's illness is unique and should be treated as such. "I think they should treat her for what her body calls for and not standard protocol. Nobody will look at that," she said. "Not every cancer is the same. Nobody understands that. Her body is not standard, and her cancer is not standard."
The couple, members of the Church of God, have said they oppose blood transfusions unless they were from Katie's mother. Doctors have said the two aren't a match. The couple's attorney, Daniel Horne, said religion wasn't at issue. Rather, they believe doctors haven't been upfront about Katie's care and have not answered all their questions about the side effects of the radiation treatment.
"This issue is about parental rights, not about religious rights," Horne said. "They just want to be informed of her treatment. They want to be involved in this." Last week, authorities issued an Amber Alert to gain custody of Katie after receiving an anonymous tip about possible neglect.
She was found with her mother at a family ranch, about 80 miles west of Corpus Christi near Freer, on Saturday. She remains at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to undergo tests, officials said. The Werneckes' three sons were placed in a foster home.
Michele Wernecke was arrested on charges of interfering with child custody and was released Monday after posting $50,000 bond. During a court hearing Wednesday, the couple asked juvenile court Judge Carl Lewis to bar doctors from providing radiation therapy until a custody hearing Wednesday.
The judge said he would make a decision Friday, the day before Katie's 13th birthday, because doctors in Houston will have more information then. Katie was diagnosed with cancer in January. In a videotaped statement recorded by her parents, Katie said she's feeling better.
"I don't need radiation treatment. And nobody asked me what I wanted. It's my body," she said. CPS also took custody of Katie's three siblings because their mother refused to cooperate with their investigation into the issue. A court hearing to determine who will be given custody of the children was set for June 15.
Katie's family has maintained a blog on the situation at prayforkatie.blogspot.com. The online journal offers updates on Katie's progress and allows supporters to leave messages for her.
I can easily beleive htis happening in my home state of Mass, but not Texas.
The last thing on earth the cancer treatmen industry wants is a cure.
Uhh, yeah. What alternative treatments would these be, and what successes are you speaking of?
Freaking amazing.
And people wonder why a lot of people opt out of having kids these days....
LQ
Go to "Health Science Institute" (HSI) page on the web and read.......there are others.....this is not a topic that has been under discussion in a dark smoke filled, back room.
It is time to get informed........you are responsible for this.
Crap. Why is it that snake oil is always advertised with lots of exclamation markes, underlining, and italics?
I certainly hope I'm going to be partially responsible for the development of new chemotherapy drugs, because that is what I am studying.
I would hate to make some of the decisions CPS type people have to make, but it seems to me like they get it wrong 100% of the time. Leave kids w/ parents who prostitute them out, take them away from decent loving christian homes, etc.
Silly me, I didn't know the state was empowered to take hostages!
More than just a little scary, eh? There will be no recourse against the kidnappers, either.
Leukemia didn't go from a certain death sentence to survived by most through mumbo-jumbo hippie alternative medicine; it was that hard medical science and those doctors you hate.
"The last thing on earth the cancer treatmen industry wants is a cure."
I've heard this. My whole life. But I've never been exposed to any real, empirical data that would let me know there are actual, viable alternatives out there. One case doesn't count, as that could be the one where the cancer mysteriously vanished as it would have anyway (as it does, now and then).
No one has ever been able to answer this:
If the "medical/pharmaceutical industry" is "keeping" the "real cures" from us because they want to continue profiting from ineffective treatments...what happens when one of their children gets cancer?
Do they say (behind closed doors, in whispers), I can't use the coffee-squid ink poultice on little Charley's tumor, because it will work so well that everybody will then know we've been using treatments that we know don't work? So I guess we let little Charley just die. Yeah.
Will be monitoring this thread for a Schiavo-related hypocrisy alert.
Since they put her under a round of chemo, I don't think they are in denial about her illness. There must be more to this story. Frankly it looks like some doctors might want to use her for medical experiments.
Which cancer are you speaking of? Some cancers (like pancreatic cancer) have a high fatality rate, but others are regularly cured. Hodgkin's disease, which this girl has, has a 94% survival rate over 5 years with radiation and chemotherapy, and most patients go on to a complete cure.
Many cancers cannot be considered cured until they have been in remission for 5-10 years, and sometimes even more. I have a suspicion that your 7% source is ignoring the large number of people in remission (many of whom will go on to be cured) and is only comparing fatalities with people who are considered completely cured.
Where are they going overseas for treatment? Treatment in all developed nations is similar for cancer. Doctors do keep up with developments in cancer treatment by other nations.
In my opinion most alternative treatment successes are a combination of luck and the placebo effect. From what I read on the web most of these people are completely ignorant of what goes on in disease processes at a biochemical level and are just stumbling about in the dark.
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