First Nations girl chooses traditional medicine over chemo

[Thor]

Tragic story all around.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/aboriginal/fi...hemo-1.2644637

“I am writing this letter to tell you that this chemo is killing my body and I cannot take it anymore,” she wrote to her doctors at the McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton.

sault family
The Sault family say they will do 'whatever it takes' to ensure that their daughter Makayla is not apprehended by the Children's Aid Society. (Sault family)

Makayla was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in January. Her doctors told her family that she would have a 75 per cent chance of survival if she continued treatment. If not, they warned that her situation could become dire.

“They basically said she would have 100 per cent relapse and she would die if we discontinued chemotherapy. And that going the route of traditional medicine has zero per cent success rate,” said Sonya Sault.

[19Yzerman19]

Uhhh, sorry those stats are pretty black and white. 75% chance of survival if you take Door Number 1, 100% chance of death behind Door Number 2. Yeah I'm going to go ahead and say this is not a person capable of rationally making their own health decisions.

[Hack&Lube]

She's only 10 years old. She doesn't have the capacity, knowledge, or understanding to make this decision. It appears that the influence of her parents or band have convinced her to go in this direction. Chemo is rough but a 75% chance of survival based on scientifically proven methods is not something you should turn your back on.

*edit* re-read the story. Jesus did it again.

[polak]

People are stupid.

[FlamesAddiction]

A 10 year old needs state protection from the parents in this case.

[pseudoreality]

The age thing is key. I hope the system stands up for what is right versus what is culturally sensitive.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by pseudoreality

The age thing is key. I hope the system stands up for what is right versus what is culturally sensitive.

I am hoping some of the more rational native leaders have a talk with them and the decision to do the right thing is internal.

[CaptainCrunch]

We know Chemo is tough as a treatment, there's no easy treatment for cancer whatsoever. But that's where her parents have to look at the odds, and help push and support her daughter through the awfulness.

Cancer is a horrible disease there is no easy magical cure that's easy on the body.

I hope that the state steps in on this one, but I have my doubts for some reason.

A friend of mine has a sister with a serious form of cancer, and half their conversations are based around, I can't do this anymore, the treatment is worse then the disease, and the common answer is, it sucks, there's a light at the end of the tunnel but you have to tough it out to get there.

People that sell traditional medicine, or the easy cure, are selling hope to the families and a line to the sufferer that's dangerous.

Maybe in the future, we'll have a machine that can isolate the cancer and shoot the cells with a rainbow laser and the treatment will take 2 hours. But for now radiation and chemo bascially kill the body, but kill the cancer faster.

[Thor]

I doubt any amount of discussion will help, they are forming a group to protect her physically from being taken.

At this point, logic and reason are gone, my sense is she will get terribly ill and when its too late they will finally bring her to a doctor and by then of course all they will do is ease her suffering.

[Hack&Lube]

The tragic part is the spin on this story because she is an aboriginal and how the band is spinning this into another debate about the government taking away native children.

“We’re not going to allow any other agency to come in and apprehend our children. We went through that in the '40s and '50s and we’re not going to allow that again,” said Chief Bryan Laforme.

A legitimate medical reason has nothing to do with that (re-education for assimilation or religious indoctrination). There is no reason to resurrect that.

[peter12]

Do any of you think the state should forcibly intervene to remove the girl from her family and community?

[1stLand]

I Dunno. Maybe the Traditional Medicines and Herbs will help.

Look at Chief Theresa Spence. She didn't have any food for months and took a bunch of herbs and she looked as healthy as a June Bug at the conclusion of her Hunger Strike.

I think these Traditional Medicines are miraculous and work wonders

[puckluck2]

She said right in the article that she's not afraid to die. Such a tragic story all around. My grandma has been doing chemo for a while now and she's literally said she'd rather be dead than continue chemo. I can sympathize with the family even if they're making the wrong decision.

#### cancer.

[peter12]

It's a difficult situation. Certainly, I can understand the child's choice, and I think it should be respected. On the other hand, she will almost certainly die as a consequence.

[Igster]

Originally Posted by peter12

It's a difficult situation. Certainly, I can understand the child's choice, and I think it should be respected. On the other hand, she will almost certainly die as a consequence.

No, it's not a difficult situation and the child's choice should not be respected. The "child" is a child at 10. Time for adults with brains to step in and fix this.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by 1stLand

I Dunno. Maybe the Traditional Medicines and Herbs will help.

Look at Chief Theresa Spence. She didn't have any food for months and took a bunch of herbs and she looked as healthy as a June Bug at the conclusion of her Hunger Strike.

I think these Traditional Medicines are miraculous and work wonders

I know your making a joke, and I could add on that the only traditional herbs that Theresa Spence consumed during her hunger strike were the 11 herbs and spices in her 20 piece bucket of KFC.

But maybe they'll ease her pain, but depending on how fast this cancer is going in her system and spreading, there's no miracle to be had here.

Even a lot of the non traditional cancer centers that I read about, the legitimate ones and not the ones that sell miracles, are combining traditional and non traditional methods, but they're not full on, eat this dried weed. They use the non traditional side to build hope and work on frame of mind and creating the positivity that people need to fight this disease, but they're still usually blasting you with radiation, or giving you massive doses of very nasty chemicals that strip your body of its immune system and leave it open to things like infections.

the parents are being stupid, there's buying into tradition, and I'm fine with that, but they're buying into a miracle that isn't there, science trumps tradition every time.

Sometimes I wish that the law could go harder after these people that sell natural cures so hard as miracle agents.

[GGG]

If the parents and the child decided that she would rather die than continuetreatment ten I think that decision should be respected. However if they are under the belief that this alternative treatment is effective at all then the state needs to step in.

Hopefully in Canada there is a first nations cancer specialist that speak to them that can cut through the whitey issues

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by peter12

Do any of you think the state should forcibly intervene to remove the girl from her family and community?

Holy ####, I'm actually going to agree with peter12 for once. I don't think forcibly removing the girl from her community does any good. Imagine the ####storm that would accompany the removal of the girl, and then imagine what that ####storm looks like if she dies while in the custody of the state.

If this is the decision she's made, and has the backing of her family and her band, then I think you have to let things be. If this group wants to assert some level of autonomy or sovereignty, then their leaders can be held accountable for the consequences.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

I think the Children's Aid Society needs to properly assess the situation.

Making a decision on a news story is incredibly reckless (not saying that's what the CAS is doing).

I do think the parents and the community on the surface are being neglectful, however we don't have all the facts nor do we know the situation fully. I likely would side in neglectful parenting in this case, but I can't say for sure.

I also question whether the doctors dismissed the idea of "traditional medicine" outright, or actually sat down and explained how everything works, the processes, and explore their logic, reasoning and thinking.

I don't like this quotation as it had a portion removed but:

"I know that what I have can kill me but … Jesus came into my room and told me not to be afraid, so if I live or if I die, I am not afraid.”

That portion of the quote leads me to believe that if Jesus came to her, he was saying proceed with the chemotherapy. But again, even if you believe Jesus did go to her, there is a portion of the quote removed.

It's sad.

Some children go through such hardship. It's heartbreaking.

[ernie]

So Jesus appeared to her and told her to use old traditional medicines from her ancestors pagan religion. Interesting.

Do you forcibly go in with an army and remove the child? Likely not. But you forcibly backchannel the crap out of this until the band/community intervenes themselves.

This isn't a case of providing a dying child with comforts of modern medicine so she lives a few weeks longer but rather an honest to goodness fantastic chance at survival. The parents are not providing the care they are required to provide. They should no longer be the guardians of this child. They should absolutely not have their wishes respected in this.

And while I'm sure chemo is hell on this poor girl she doesn't really understand what death means. no kids that age really do.