Missing Child - URGENT REQUEST

[NSS]

Time is critical in finding 5-year old Ashya, who requires urgent treatment for a brain tumour but was removed without consent from Southampton General yesterday. Please share the following plea from Hampshire Police, particularly if you have friends, family or colleagues in France (where he is believed to have been taken).

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...8596340&type=1

[Brian]

Some random early thoughts on this.....

Is it "illegal" for parents to remove a child from hospital?
Maybe he is being taken to a foreign hospital where care is thought to be "better"
Maybe he is being taken to some sunny nice spot for his last hours
I understand he is not in France now anyway
Parents and SEVEN children in a Hyundai? How difficult is that to find?

One thing IS clear-we have absolutely no idea what the facts actually are.

[NSS]

Originally Posted by Brian

One thing IS clear-we have absolutely no idea what the facts actually are.

Completely agree, but am inclined to think the clinicians and police will have a far better appreciation of the facts and would not have issued such a plea if they didn't believe finding him (urgently) to be in the best interests of the child.

I run the charity that helped fund the specialist unit in which he was being cared for. Though I have no knowledge of this child's case, I believe you'd be hard pushed to find a children's neurosurgery unit with a better record - anywhere.

[Anchorhandler]

Originally Posted by Brian

I understand he is not in France now anyway
Parents and SEVEN children in a Hyundai? How difficult is that to find?
.

Just out of curiosity, it wasn't an 03 plated silver Hyundai people carrier type thing was it? ( with roof box)

I noticed one driving towards me a couple days ago fully loaded with kids in the back a few kms from the Mt St Michel over here in Normandy.

Simon

Sent from my Experia Ultra europallet using Rib.net

[Poly]

Originally Posted by Anchorhandler

Just out of curiosity, it wasn't an 03 plated silver Hyundai people carrier type thing was it? ( with roof box)

It is an Grey i800 with 60 plate.

[Anchorhandler]

Originally Posted by Poly

It is an Grey i800 with 60 plate.

S**t, I'd better go and put some air back in that 2003 Hyundai's tyres!! ;-)

Simon

Sent from my Experia Ultra europallet using Rib.net

[Pikey Dave]

This case just goes from bad to worse. The parents are banged up in a foreign jail, yet have not been charged with any offence. The poor kid at the centre of it all, is in a strange hospital under police guard, where no one speaks his language. The rest of his family are banned from seeing him. Where is the "care" in all that?
Absolutely tragic & appalling. The authorities at the centre of it all, especially the British, should hang their heads in shame, this is the work of a totalitarian state.

[biffer]

They have gone to Spain to get proton therapy that isn't available over here, I've been at the mercy of Southampton general hospital and still am, the care, if you're in over the weekend is zero and it's hard to explain that you can't eat solid food to a foreigner who's trying to give you something on a plate that looks like it's just come from the other end.
I can't see what law they've broken, if any, I wouldn't say taking him to a better form of treatment was endangering his life, maybe they've hurt some doctors pride who's doing the best he can with what he has.

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by biffer

........ maybe they've hurt some doctors pride who's doing the best he can with what he has.

I think you've hit it on the head there Biff. The whole thing smacks of bruised egos & "I know best". There was a lot if back pedalling from the spokesman for Soton General on the news last night.


.....sh1t happens.......

[Mollers]

I was chatting to a young hospital doc at the weekend who had just resigned her post. She painted a damning picture of the current state of NHS hospitals. Wasteful, ego driven chaos.

[stigoftd]

No one can justify the amount of money that has been wasted on this case of family love

They wanted better treatment for there child who wasnt getting it here so they prepared and spent out on the equipment they needed and got it done there selves - no the doctors didnt like it so they made this story of him being in iminent danger - they and anyone else who has a connection with locking them up and baring them from seing there ill boy should be rounded up and locked away not the parents

[biffer]

I've been through much of what the guy said, the little pump and feed tube is the pipe up his nose and into his stomach, I had the same pump for six months, my head was zapped and I had chemo at the same place, over two years now and I still haven't got all my taste back and have no saliva.
Me being a grumpy old bastard did ask questions and pull them up when they left me in a corridor and forgot I was there for a blood test, fed me two lots medication for six weeks that counteracted each other, when you complain about stuff like this they mark you're records, something like an aggressive stamp.
Can I sympathise with this guy, to fecking right I can, all the quacks should be answerable for there own actions, but they hide behind this don't question us or else attitude, they don't tell you you're face is going to swell up like a football and when you've spent a whole weekend not being able to get hold of anyone till Monday you ain't happy and then to be told, oh that's normal, really gets me going another red star on my records, just a small insight to my problems with the same hospital, I really feel for this family, more than most !

[Cookee]

As was said at the top of the thread there will be more than meets the eye to this - I believe they refused treatment on religious grounds and Wiki says: As of 2012 there have been no controlled trials to demonstrate that proton therapy yields improved survival, or other clinical outcomes of course a lot may have changed since then - I hope that puts a little perspective on the situation.

I personally believe that no parent has the right to endanger a child's life for any reason let alone religious ones. Once you're 18 then I have no problem at all with people refusing treatment for themselves - my mother in law's partner is really quite ill with cancer and he is having chemo on the chance it will give him a bit longer despite the fact that what time he has left will be unpleasant to say the least, if he had refused treatment I would understand.

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by Cookee

As was said at the top of the thread there will be more than meets the eye to this - I believe they refused treatment on religious grounds and Wiki says: As of 2012 there have been no controlled trials to demonstrate that proton therapy yields improved survival, or other clinical outcomes of course a lot may have changed since then - I hope that puts a little perspective on the situation.

I personally believe that no parent has the right to endanger a child's life for any reason let alone religious ones. Once you're 18 then I have no problem at all with people refusing treatment for themselves - my mother in law's partner is really quite ill with cancer and he is having chemo on the chance it will give him a bit longer despite the fact that what time he has left will be unpleasant to say the least, if he had refused treatment I would understand.

Regardless of the religious/medical grounds, the parents had not committed a criminal offence in the eyes of the law. The child wasn't under any court protection order & as such, the parents had every right to choose which treatment their child received or didn't as the case maybe. Under EU law, the family had free movement within the EU & have broken no laws. Whether their action is morally right, I'm hardly the one to judge. The British state overstepped the mark, which is now being demonstrated by the intense backpedalling from the very top. The case was handled appallingly & without any regard for the poor little sod at the centre of it all.
Look at me, I'm going all soft again. Where's Mollers when I need him.
I'm off for a sharp dose of #5

[Cookee]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

Regardless of the religious/medical grounds, the parents had not committed a criminal offence in the eyes of the law. The child wasn't under any court protection order & as such, the parents had every right to choose which treatment their child received or didn't as the case maybe. Under EU law, the family had free movement within the EU & have broken no laws. Whether their action is morally right, I'm hardly the one to judge. The British state overstepped the mark, which is now being demonstrated by the intense backpedalling from the very top. The case was handled appallingly & without any regard for the poor little sod at the centre of it all.
Look at me, I'm going all soft again. Where's Mollers when I need him.
I'm off for a sharp dose of #5

I think we're basically in agreement - I think the hospitals take on the situation was that "in their opinion" the parents were putting the childs life at risk and of course they have a statutory responsibility to protect that life, there is obviously a line somewhere in the sand which denotes how far you should go to protect that life especially one that already had a presumably life limiting condition and I can see where it would appear that the line was crossed some way back in this case. However I'm sure there are more facts to come out of this before we judge the NHS and the Police especially regarding the treatment the child may have been denied by the parents taking the child away.

[Poly]

I can't see this thread going anywhere other than:

• random speculation on the specific circumstances
• a debate on religion
• a debate on NHS & political policy

which is pretty much off limits for RIBnet

Given the boy has been found the thread has served its purpose; hopefully he is getting all the care he needs and now that the parents have been released from custody the family can get on with discussing the best care with the professionals out of the media spotlight.