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A few days ago, Aiden Pedersen’s parents got the worst possible news. Their only child, 18-month-old Aiden, was diagnosed with leukemia by doctors at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario.
“It’s a nightmare,” Aiden’s father, Marco Pedersen, said Friday. “The world came crashing down on him pretty hard.”
But when CHEO doctors told Pedersen, 23, and his 20-year-old wife, Erica O’Lane, that Aiden needed to start chemotherapy immediately, they balked.
Pedersen’s father, Mark Allen, is a close associate of Rick Simpson, a cannabis crusader who claims to have developed an oral hemp oil treatment that can cure many illnesses, including cancer.
Pederson, a Vanier resident who has worked as a cook since he was 16, was convinced the hemp oil treatment would cure his ailing son. He was equally convinced that chemotherapy would do him harm.
“I really can’t see it being a benefit to my little man,” Pedersen said in an interview.
When he and his wife refused consent for chemotherapy, CHEO called in the Ottawa Children’s Aid Society. After an investigation, the CAS went to Family Court Friday to ask the judge to remove Aiden from his parents.
When it became clear that the judge was going to agree with the CAS, Aiden’s mother, Erica, caved in and signed a consent form, to her husband’s displeasure.
“She got bullied into agreeing to the chemo because she wanted to be with her kid,” Pedersen said. “I can understand why she did it.
“But at the same time, I’ve showed her all the information. Up until they were threatening to take my boy, she would have been all for the oil.”
There’s no doubt where Pedersen stands. “I’m not budging. I’m his father. I’m supposed to be the wall.”
But there are consequences to his position. “All my rights as a parent have been removed,” he said. “I don’t get to see my kid at all. He’s gone.”
Because his wife signed the consent form, she is with Aiden at CHEO, where chemotherapy treatments were due to begin Friday.
Eva Schacherl, a spokeswoman for CHEO, said she couldn’t comment on an individual case unless both parents give written consent.
But, she said, if one or both parents refuse a standard medical treatment and that puts their child at risk, “we’re obliged under the Child and Family Services Act to report to the CAS. The CAS is then the arbiter of determining what’s in the child’s best interests.”
Schacherl said the CAS has a number of different remedies in such cases. “It doesn’t have to be as extreme as apprehending the child. They have a number of options to try to help a decision to be made.” The Citizen was unable to reach anyone at the Ottawa CAS late Friday.
Cases like this happen very rarely, Schacherl said. “We deal with thousands of patients, many dealing with cancer or other life-threatening conditions. We work very closely with them to give their children the best care possible.”
Pedersen said he asked the doctors at CHEO to consider alternatives to chemotherapy for Aiden, but they refused. They also rejected his request for a second opinion, he said, and refused to release test results and diagnosis papers.
In court Friday, the judge gave Pedersen until Sept. 29 to marshal and present evidence that hemp oil, taken orally, is a credible alternative to chemotherapy.
He couldn’t present that evidence Friday, said Jennifer Collett, a patient advocate and director of Canadian Medical Cannabis Partners, because the proceeding was a “rushed court challenge.” Pedersen and his wife “didn’t have any time to collect anything together.
“All the parents are asking for is time to make an educated decision, and they feel they have not been informed of all the options,” Collett said. Instead, they were “threatened and publicly berated by the attending doctor.”
Collett said the “powers that be” don’t want their authority questioned. “However, this child’s life is at risk, and every parent has a right and responsibility to protect their child from unsafe, bad policy.”
Childhood leukemia once carried a poor prognosis. But that has changed dramatically over the past decade or so. Now, five-year survival rates for some forms of childhood leukemia are approaching 90 per cent.
Even so, Marco Pedersen remains convinced that chemotherapy won’t save his young son’s life. “If he’d had this oil administered starting today,” he said, by the end of the month, “I honestly feel he’d be a really healthy little boy.”
dbutler@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/ButlerDon
查看原文...
“It’s a nightmare,” Aiden’s father, Marco Pedersen, said Friday. “The world came crashing down on him pretty hard.”
But when CHEO doctors told Pedersen, 23, and his 20-year-old wife, Erica O’Lane, that Aiden needed to start chemotherapy immediately, they balked.
Pedersen’s father, Mark Allen, is a close associate of Rick Simpson, a cannabis crusader who claims to have developed an oral hemp oil treatment that can cure many illnesses, including cancer.
Pederson, a Vanier resident who has worked as a cook since he was 16, was convinced the hemp oil treatment would cure his ailing son. He was equally convinced that chemotherapy would do him harm.
“I really can’t see it being a benefit to my little man,” Pedersen said in an interview.
When he and his wife refused consent for chemotherapy, CHEO called in the Ottawa Children’s Aid Society. After an investigation, the CAS went to Family Court Friday to ask the judge to remove Aiden from his parents.
When it became clear that the judge was going to agree with the CAS, Aiden’s mother, Erica, caved in and signed a consent form, to her husband’s displeasure.
“She got bullied into agreeing to the chemo because she wanted to be with her kid,” Pedersen said. “I can understand why she did it.
“But at the same time, I’ve showed her all the information. Up until they were threatening to take my boy, she would have been all for the oil.”
There’s no doubt where Pedersen stands. “I’m not budging. I’m his father. I’m supposed to be the wall.”
But there are consequences to his position. “All my rights as a parent have been removed,” he said. “I don’t get to see my kid at all. He’s gone.”
Because his wife signed the consent form, she is with Aiden at CHEO, where chemotherapy treatments were due to begin Friday.
Eva Schacherl, a spokeswoman for CHEO, said she couldn’t comment on an individual case unless both parents give written consent.
But, she said, if one or both parents refuse a standard medical treatment and that puts their child at risk, “we’re obliged under the Child and Family Services Act to report to the CAS. The CAS is then the arbiter of determining what’s in the child’s best interests.”
Schacherl said the CAS has a number of different remedies in such cases. “It doesn’t have to be as extreme as apprehending the child. They have a number of options to try to help a decision to be made.” The Citizen was unable to reach anyone at the Ottawa CAS late Friday.
Cases like this happen very rarely, Schacherl said. “We deal with thousands of patients, many dealing with cancer or other life-threatening conditions. We work very closely with them to give their children the best care possible.”
Pedersen said he asked the doctors at CHEO to consider alternatives to chemotherapy for Aiden, but they refused. They also rejected his request for a second opinion, he said, and refused to release test results and diagnosis papers.
In court Friday, the judge gave Pedersen until Sept. 29 to marshal and present evidence that hemp oil, taken orally, is a credible alternative to chemotherapy.
He couldn’t present that evidence Friday, said Jennifer Collett, a patient advocate and director of Canadian Medical Cannabis Partners, because the proceeding was a “rushed court challenge.” Pedersen and his wife “didn’t have any time to collect anything together.
“All the parents are asking for is time to make an educated decision, and they feel they have not been informed of all the options,” Collett said. Instead, they were “threatened and publicly berated by the attending doctor.”
Collett said the “powers that be” don’t want their authority questioned. “However, this child’s life is at risk, and every parent has a right and responsibility to protect their child from unsafe, bad policy.”
Childhood leukemia once carried a poor prognosis. But that has changed dramatically over the past decade or so. Now, five-year survival rates for some forms of childhood leukemia are approaching 90 per cent.
Even so, Marco Pedersen remains convinced that chemotherapy won’t save his young son’s life. “If he’d had this oil administered starting today,” he said, by the end of the month, “I honestly feel he’d be a really healthy little boy.”
dbutler@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/ButlerDon
查看原文...
