Couple refuses chemo treatment for their child

Couple refuses chemo treatment for their child

Phil Couvrette
CanWest News Service

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

An Ontario hospital said it would not press Quebec health authorities to force a three-year-old boy suffering from cancer to receive chemotherapy treatment.

The family has refused chemo, instead opting for alternative treatment.


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The hospital expressed concern about the boy's health and referred the case to Quebec's regional youth protection agency, which has declined to intervene.


Marie Belanger, spokeswoman for the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario said it wasn't likely the hospital would take matters to court to force the child to undergo chemotherapy. "I don't think that we're going to forge ahead with any legal recourse," she said.

Anael L'Esperance-Nascimento, from Ripon., Que. north of Ottawa, was diagnosed with cancerous cells in his brain and bone marrow last fall.

He was treated at CHEO but then his parents decided to consider alternative treatment because he wasn't getting better.

Belanger said doctors disapproved of the family's decision to interrupt treatment but were keeping in touch and still providing some level of care.

"We don't jump the gun every time the parent says something we disagree with," Belanger said. "But in this particular case, for reasons that I can't go into, we decided that we disagreed with the course of treatment the family had chosen."

The alternative treatment involves a diet of raw vegetables developed by Florida's Hippocrates Health Institute which "is dedicated to the belief that a pure enzyme-rich diet, complemented by positive thinking and non-invasive therapies, are essential elements on the path to optimum health" according to its web site.

On Saturday some 300 people held a rally at Gatineau,_Que. health food store to raise money for Anael's treatment.

Joining the crowd was Laurie Anne Prince, who says the Hippocrates method helped her beat breast cancer. She has since started giving conferences promoting alternative treatment and a similar diet based on raw vegetables. "It gives the body the tools necessary to fight cancer," said Prince, who adds she dropped using a wheelchair and tests now showed her cancer to be inactive. "I'm not completely healed, but I am healthier, I should be dead," she said.

It's not unusual for families to seek complementary alternative medicines, said Belanger, but this doesn't necessarily mean patients should interrupt hospital treatment.

The child's condition was improving according to reports, but his mom said she would not hesitate to resort to chemotherapy if the current method failed.

© CanWest News Service 2007


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