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A Perth couple is defending their attempt to stop their six-year-old son from receiving chemotherapy treatment for a malignant brain tumour.

Angela Kiszko and Adrian Strachan say they want to pursue alternative treatments for their son’s medulloblastoma instead of “harsh” chemotherapy and radiotherapy prescribed by doctors.

Oshin has already undergone a six-hour surgery.

“I don’t want my son’s brain fried with radiation. The effects are too harsh, too damaging … I find it even difficult to call it a treatment,” Ms Kiszko said.

A Perth doctor took legal action that saw a Judge order them to take six-year-old Oshin Kiszko to hospital for prescribed cancer treatment.

The Australian Medical Association says the judge’s decision was based on medical evidence and the child’s best interest.

In his judgement, Family Court Judge Stephen Thackray said in March that “parental power was not unlimited” and found the parents were not acting in their child’s best interests because doctors believed he would die within a few months without treatment.

The court was told that young Oshin could die within months without treatment.  If chemotherapy was started immediately he had a 30 per cent prospect of surviving for five years and a 40 per cent chance with both chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

The parents contacted media outlets and are appealing the decision.

Ms Kiszko said it had been “horrific to watch” his first week of chemotherapy.

“I would not put myself through this,” she said.  “I want him to live. I don’t want him to survive.”

The National Ethics Chairman for the AMA and WA President, Michael Gannon has previously gone on record stating that he thought the doctor’s decision to challenge the parents legally was a brave one.

“It is very difficult to try to make a case to a parent that you think you know better than their wishes for their own child and put their head above the parapet,” he told ABC radio. “There is no doubt at all about this decision being made based on significant prospects of a cure or, if not, significant prospects of a high quality of life for a meaningful period of time.”

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  • The result of the court decision will be to make this young lad suffer for quite a few years without the quality of life that all young children truly deserve. Even Charlie Teo now believes there are better ways of addressing these horrible brain tumours, that up until now he has been the only brave person to tackle them by operating and getting some success.
    I feel so sorry for these parents.

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  • Such a difficult choice to make. Not sure i could choose no treatment over the chance to save my child’s life. From what I’ve read, he’ll get cataracts, have hearing problems, his growth will be stunted and his IQ will be around 70. Is it worth saying no to avoid these problems. They seem minor problems to me

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  • There are many successful treatments for cancer. Doctor\\\’s don\\\’t know many of them, so it does not make their way the only way or the best way – especially when you have only one treatment presented to the court.
    There is a story in the u.s.a where about a similar case where the hospital forced treatment on their daughter.
    Doctors receive 4 hours of nutritional training in their study. How can they know what is possible. There a thousands of stories about reversing disease. This family have made a choice based on informed research and made their choice, It doesn\\\’t matter what YOU or I think !
    This is their RIGHT !!
    WHEN THE SYSTEM REMOVES THE PARENTAL RIGHT TO CHOOSE – WE ARE IN TROUBLE.

    There a a few stories similar to the one below, where the treatment wa given to the child only then the parents opted for a different method of care.
    In both the cases that I know of, the child died and an autopsy revealed they were cancer free – the chemo fried the brain.
    http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/06/10/dr-mercola-on-ric-schiff.aspx

    Another story about a police officer who went to court after his daughter died. She was forced into treatment for brain tumor by the hospital in the U.S. When the parents took her without consent, they managed to treat her to where she was cancer free using other therapy. Their daughter died anyway because of the radiation treatment.
    There\\\’s so much info about treating cancer – did you know that vitamin D3 deficiency is linked to brain cancer, as is meat, an acidic environment, just to name a few based on diet alone.

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  • Difficult one. In one aspect you can see why they would prefer to seek alternative treatment but if the doctors think it is absolutely necessary then I would trust their opinion

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  • This is such a heartbreaking story.
    I can only compare with my mother-in-law who has a terminal brain tumour. It’s horrible to watch her detiriate. I can understand that this family want quality of life. not quantity

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  • Even if the boy suffers his way through the treatment it is terminal. The treatment may extend his life but what quality of life will he have. From what I have witnessed with relatives of mine who had terminal brain tumours they lived a very painful debiliating life, losing their speech, paralysed yet had to have a pillow placed between their legs to prevent them from being crossed all the time, muscle spasms they had no control over. I wouldn’t wish anybody to go through 1 month of that let alone 3 years +. All the nursing staff can do is try to assess how much pain the patient may be in and give constant pain relief. People in Court who make decisions don’t seem to understand the loss of quality of life and the pain they are forcing on the patient. I hate to nasty but I wish they could know what it is like.

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  • I personally eiuld go anything in my power to make my child better. This treat has a very high effective rate and 50-60% success is better than the child dying within months.

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  • What a horrible situation to be in.
    I pray that I never get to feel what this would be like. :(

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  • So emotive, and such a negative vibe – i hop they manage to find some kind of resolution soon – ongoing angst can’t be good for anyone involved, especially the boy and his family. Everyone is just trying to do their best too. Sometimes the families wishes need to take priority – but I don’t know if that is the case here or not …

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  • I can imagine how traumatizing this experience is for all of them.
    I understand that the parents wanted to bring Oshin to the USA for a treatment that was milder and with less side effects. But now they cannot live the country. They are not allowed to take any decision. It doesn’t seem very fair to me. :-(

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  • My understanding is that there will be quite horrific side effects, permanent ones, and this was a big part of their decision.

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  • Like it

    Reply

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