Found Alive UK - Ashya King, 5, Southampton, 28 Aug 2015

[Ellmau]

ZaZara, I don't see anything in that report of the UK doctors' letter which criticises the credentials or abilities of Dr Cortes Funes, or of the Spanish hospital in general. AFAICS their concerns were with the delays resulting from removing A. from Southampton.

This Telegraph article says he was in any case in favour of a specific chemo course for Ashya: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...-to-return-to-Spain-after-proton-therapy.html

(He also doesn't seem to be a fan of patients' families educating themselves from the internet.)

There's a nice article on him and his career and his philospy of cancer treatment (from 2007 so not including the most up to date stuff, but interesting) here:
http://www.cancerworld.org/pdf/8520_CW17_32-37_masterpieceOK.pdf

Here's a report on Ashya's treatment in Prague, which also mentions chemo as part of the essential followup: http://www.proton-cancer-treatment....ya-has-finished-his-proton-therapy-in-prague/

 

[ZaZara]

BRETT KING HARASSED BY UK BORDER FORCE / POLICE ON RETURN TO ENGLAND


The Guardian reports, with video by Naveed King
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...-father-brett-treated-like-criminal-return-uk


Addressing the camera, he [Brett King] says: “I’m here at Gatwick airport, I handed my passport in, the man looked at his computer, asked me to come to this holding booth and took my passport away as well as my son Naveed’s passport away.

“Now behind me is the police making phone calls and that sort of thing when I was told that there would be no problem if I come back to England, but already my first attempt to come back to England or a time when I’d like to come back to England, there’s been problems. We’ll see what will happen in a few minutes.”

(...)

A Sussex police spokesman told the Guardian: “Two uniformed constables who were on routine patrol in the airside area were called by UK Border Force to advise on an issue relating to a passport held by an arriving passenger in Immigration Arrivals on Saturday 29 November.


BBM

:thinking: Seems they were right to distrust the British system ....Like the Kings, I also wonder what info on Brett King they had in that computer.


Meanwhile, see how he swims ...



(Picture via @CaroleMagoha)

 

[Ellmau]

Sounds like the family's passports were flagged when the arrest warrant was issued and no-one remembered to unflag them in the UKBA system. The policemen who turned up in response said they were not interested.

 

[Ellmau]

Oh, and rather than melodramatically complaining to the press, if the Kings want to find out what the UKBA has about them there's a straightforward process for doing so: making a Subject Access Request under Data Protection legislation: https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/personal-information

 

[ZaZara]

Sounds like the family's passports were flagged when the arrest warrant was issued and no-one remembered to unflag them in the UKBA system. The policemen who turned up in response said they were not interested.

A matter of perspective. The father probably remembered his time in a Spanish jail.

 

[Little Jedi]

^^ Good Grief !

I agree that it was just an (another) 'error' but really........ :shakehead:

Naveed has been getting everything on video. He is posting 'updates' of Ashya progress so I don't believe it's a case of complaining directly to the 'media'.
Coming back to the UK was obviously something they would be recording, kind of a big deal for the family considering what they've been thru.

 

[Little Jedi]

Thank you for the picture ZaZara
Doesn't Ashya look really great ?

 

[ZaZara]

ASHYA'S GRANDMA: PARENTS WANT GUARANTEE OVER SAFE RETURN

Portsmouth news reorts:
http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/he...nts-want-guarantee-over-safe-return-1-6455021


Mrs King told The News: ‘They want to come back to England, they don’t want to be in Spain, but they can’t come back because of what’s going on.
‘They can’t risk the children’s lives, so I don’t know if they are going to come back.
‘Until this vendetta stops and Brett has got absolutely assurance no-one will go after the children, they can’t come back.
‘He has got to have written proof Brett is safe to come back with Ashya and the rest of the family.

Mrs King said there were fears Southampton General Hospital would take Ashya in for chemotherapy treatment if he returns, which is not what the family want.
And she said Ashya’s parents were ‘running out of money’ since people who pledged to help them have failed to come up with cash.


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

ASHYA'S LAWYER ANNOUNCES LEGAL ACTION

Sevilla ABC.Es reports:
http://sevilla.abc.es/andalucia/mal...2032022.html?🤬🤬🤬=Zona_B_Zona_apertura-a1__000


Translation:


Today the family is happy to finally have achieved that their little son recovers without chemotherapy and radiotherapy. But they are not willing to remain passive. Now begins the legal battle.

The family lawyer, Juan Isidro Fernandez announced yesterday that the parents will initiate legal action. Some actions that will go two ways. In the court of England but also in Strasbourg before the European Court of Human Rights. Thus, according to the lawyer, the family will take action against the British hospital for a violation of human rights by slandering them and saying that the boy was "at risk of death" when what parents wanted was the best treatment. "They treated them as if they were bad parents and as criminals," he stressed.

But they also consider that the rights of the child have been violated because he was separated violently from his parents for six days. "There has been an excess of authority in the measures adopted by the British government who failed to verify and compare the information with the knowledge that the father had intentions to go to Prague," said Juan Isidro Fernandez. And he insisted that the boy's father brought to the attention of the medical authorities this intention to resort to an alternative for the treatment because they wanted no radiotherapy and chemotherapy and, despite this, the doctors said the young boy would die if he left the hospital.

It is one of those cases, as Fernandez says, that for a lawyer is more than a legal intervention, "It is all turning into a personal and human accomplishment."


BBM

 

[Ellmau]

This all brings us back to the question whether a parent can refuse treatment for a child. In the UK, the answer is legally no, so they may be right to fear that they would end up in court again if they persist in refusing chemotherapy. (I suppose it's not the case in Spain.) I certainly can't see them getting any written promises that it won't happen. But imo it is refusing chemo which is risking the child's life.

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales...ces_in_wales/nhs_patients_rights_in_wales.htm

The court order which allowed Ashya to go to Prague and discharged the wardship (in retrospect, perhaps prematurely), implies that chemo was part of the treatment plan for Ashya, and that the parent's intentio =n of refusing it was not made clear to the court:

At that point, a dispute arose between Ashya’s parents and the treating doctors in
Southampton as to the treatment to be administered to Ashya thereafter. Everyone
agreed that Ashya required both chemotherapy and radiotherapy

http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/judgment-ashya-king-08092014.pdf

 

[ZaZara]

ASHYA KING IS RECOVERING, RECEIVES IMMUNOTHERAPY


Diario de Sevilla reports:
http://www.diariodesevilla.es/article/andalucia/1914239/la/recuperacion/ashya/king.html


Translation:

Ashya King, the British boy who some months ago was the subject of an authentic court battle in order to allow him to undergo proton therapy in Prague against a brain tumor, is still recovering in Marbella. Yesterday, the family lawyer, Juan Isidro Fernandez showed his satisfaction about the recovery of the child, whom he was able to visit on Sunday, as the photo shows that was ceded by counsel.
Ashya is receiving physiotherapy, rehabilitation therapy and immunotherapy. He walks and looks perfectly, Juan Isidro Fernandez said, adding that the tumor markers are now negative, he has no metastasis, and it has not been necessary to have him treated with radiation therapy.

Counsel recalled that the pioneering treatment of Proton Therapy to which the child was subjected in Prague, which cost between 60,000 and 90,000 euros, was finally borne by the British government. However, this does not stop the family from taking take legal action over the detention of the parents.

Juan Isidro Fernandez stressed that he is currently looking into going to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for the five days that parents were deprived of freedom, which was a "violation of their fundamental rights" for the lawyer believes that this measure was "excessive, arbitrary and not proven".

The family lawyer explained that parents, Brett and Naghemeh King, were persecuted under an English law of 1931 on "cruelty to children" and considers that in this case there was a violation of the rights of the child by "depriving him of the presence of his parents when he was in the dramatic conditions as the child was then suffering." The couple was locked up in Madrid's Soto del Real prison under a European Arrest and Surrender Warrant (EAW), until the British prosecutors withdrew the order for the arrest and surrender of the parents.

BBM

This all brings us back to the question whether a parent can refuse treatment for a child. In the UK, the answer is legally no, so they may be right to fear that they would end up in court again if they persist in refusing chemotherapy. (I suppose it's not the case in Spain.) I certainly can't see them getting any written promises that it won't happen. But imo it is refusing chemo which is risking the child's life.

BBM


By all standards, immunotherapy is an accepted treatment in Spain (and not only there.)
I have indicated before that Ashya's oncologist is an expert in the field. He proposed immunotherapy.
The parents have accepted this treatment, and they did not refuse it.
But somehow the British seem to have problems accepting this. Chemotherapy it has to be, or else the gallows.
Very odd, to say the least.

 

[ZaZara]

MP HANCOCK ADVISES KING FAMILY TO KEEP AWAY FROM UK

The Mirror reports:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ashya-kings-family-scared-come-4882492

Ashya King's family too scared to come home in case authorities snatch brave son


The couple fear their son will be snatched from them by the authorities if they set foot on British soil.
Brett was held by cops and border guards when he and son Naveed, one of his six other children, *attempted to *return to Britain earlier this month.
And he has been given no assurances that social workers won’t try to take Ashya from them.

Property developer Brett said: “My MP Mike Hancock has asked social services, ‘What would happen if the King family return to England? Would you involve yourself with them?’
“They haven’t been able to give a clear answer, so my MP said to keep out of the way for the time being.
“He said, ‘If anything happens, like your child grazes his head and you take him to the hospital, maybe social services will try and take the child away’.
“We don’t feel confident about any of this at the moment. If we were planning to live here in Spain we would start a life here and get jobs here.
“We just feel like temporary residents, waiting to go back to England when it’s completely safe.”

Recalling his terror when he was stopped at Gatwick airport last month, Brett said: “People keep saying ‘Come back to England, everything will be safe, it’ll be easy’.
“So I tried it. I wanted to turn the heating off in my house and drain the water because I thought it was going to get cold. I also wanted to see my mum because we miss her.
“I didn’t think there would be any hassle – but there was.
“When you have been labelled as ‘on the run’ you are affected psychologically. It’s affected my confidence, even when walking into a shop where there are security guards.




Ashya King (centre) with his siblings, sister Sion, 3, and brothers Yusha, 9, and Matty, 7 , right


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

ASHYA KING FREE OF CANCER AFTER PROTON THERAPY, SAY PARENTS

The Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...ee-of-cancer-after-proton-therapy-say-parents


Ashya King – the five-year-old boy who sparked an international search when he was removed from hospital against doctors’ wishes – has been declared cancer-free, his parents have said.

The family, who have previously spoken of their apprehension over returning to the UK for fear that social services would intervene, are staying in Marbella where Ashya will continue his recovery.

The Sun quoted a report from the PTC [Proton Therapy Center] that stated that the oncology department “could speculate that proton therapy received could be sufficient to sterilise sites of possible future relapses of the tumour”.



BBM

:cheer::cheer::cheer::cheer::cheer::cheer::cheer::cheer:

 

[ZaZara]

ASHYA KING BEEN GIVEN THE ALL CLEAR FROM BRAIN CANCER

Daily Mail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...say-son-started-speak-play-siblings-park.html

His parents told a newspaper he had been given the all-clear by the private clinic that treated him.

Mr King, 51, told The Sun: 'We are absolutely delighted. It has justified everything we have gone through, because things are working out for Aysha.

'If we had left him with the NHS we don't think he would have survived. We have saved his life.

'We could not sleep before we got this news. Now we are so full of hope for the future. We are jumping up and down with joy this is a miracle we thought we would never see.'

His wife, 46, added: 'We could not sleep before we got this news — now we are so full of hope for the future. We are jumping up and down with joy. It is a miracle we thought we would never see.'

A report issued by the private clinic's oncology department last week declared Ashya cancer-free.

However, the family has yet to return to the UK and are living in their holiday home in Spain.


BBM


:winner::thewave::winner::thewave:

 

[imjustagirl123]

This is great news, I am delighted for him. My dad had cancer too and now in remission so I can relate. Congrats to little ashya

 

[Ellmau]

Fiona Dalton, chief executive of University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the General, has sent a letter to the Kings' local MP Mike Hancock recommending Ashya not return to their care because of the strain between staff and the family.


The letter said: “If the King family choose to return to the UK we would advise it would be Ashya's best interest for care to be provided by another organisation.

"Relationships between the family and clinicians are very important in paediatrics and we believe an ongoing relationship could be better developed with another hospital.”

The spokesman said: “We therefore do not anticipate that we would have any involvement with, or responsibility for, any decisions made about the family in the event of a return to the UK.

“The body we believe to have ongoing oversight of the safeguarding and welfare of Ashya is Portsmouth City Council and its safeguarding children's team.”

The letter has prompted an angry reaction from Ashya's dad Brett, 51, who said the family feel “exiled”.

He added: “It's really worrying. How can we come back if this is the attitude of people in authority?”

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/118..._Southampton_hospital_after_he_returns_to_UK/

 

[gitana1]

ASHYA KING BEEN GIVEN THE ALL CLEAR FROM BRAIN CANCER

Daily Mail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...say-son-started-speak-play-siblings-park.html

His parents told a newspaper he had been given the all-clear by the private clinic that treated him.

Mr King, 51, told The Sun: 'We are absolutely delighted. It has justified everything we have gone through, because things are working out for Aysha.

'If we had left him with the NHS we don't think he would have survived. We have saved his life.

'We could not sleep before we got this news. Now we are so full of hope for the future. We are jumping up and down with joy this is a miracle we thought we would never see.'

His wife, 46, added: 'We could not sleep before we got this news — now we are so full of hope for the future. We are jumping up and down with joy. It is a miracle we thought we would never see.'

A report issued by the private clinic's oncology department last week declared Ashya cancer-free.

However, the family has yet to return to the UK and are living in their holiday home in Spain.


BBM


:winner::thewave::winner::thewave:

Wow! When I saw his case at the top of the threads I got worried it was bad news. Thank you so much for this beautiful update!!

 

[Supernovae]

@Ellmau

I saw that as well. I can't imagine that Great Ormond Street or whoever else are that eager to take up the poison chalice either. I'm also concerned that it's a bit premature to be talking about "cure." He can't even be 6 months out of active treatment and IIRC he was "clear" of detectable cancer before he even left Southampton, the question is whether he stays in remission in the long term. The fact that he (apparently) hasn't had chemo, or very little, makes him relatively high risk for relapse.

 

[Ellmau]

True. But that's this family all over. All we can do is wish them well and hope it does work out. It may, and I hope it does.

 

[Supernovae]

"All we can do is wish them well and hope it does work out. It may, and I hope it does."

It's difficult, of course you only wish for the best for this individual child, but the level of misinformation surrounding this case has the potential to harm other children in the long run.