to all GN's living in France 4 year old boy missing

It is not unknown for medical consultants to be arrogant and to think that their way is the right way and the only right way. I can understand parents wanting to let a child die with his family and without the imposition of what the medics think (know) will prolong his life but not prevent him from dying within a relatively short space of time.

Perhaps the parents thought the treatment was cruel.

If the medical treatment he was getting was to reduce the child's suffering while he was dying, it's a different matter, but we don't (and can't) know that at this stage.

The little boy is the most important person in all this and he needs his mum and dad. The authorities need to see some sense.

According to the grandmother the hospital had told the parents the treatment was finished. They took him away to buy the specialised treatment not yet available in this country.

The parents don't seem in denial to me either. If anything they are very clued up with their son's condition, they certainly have been doing their research. It was the hospital who said the batteries were going to expire on the feeding tube on Friday night and that didn't happen. petallus we had a similar experience to you when my Mother died.

Thanks for that link, jings.

They had already sold their flat in Spain, and just needed to sign the papers completing the sale in order to get the £90,000 the treatment would cost.

Badly handled. It's all been terribly, awfully, heartbreakingly badly handled. Surgeons getting on their high horses and police jumping in big footed. I suspect the parents wishes may have been over ruled for a while as they had time to plan the child's 'escape' in such detail.

The police need to climb down and admit their job is complete. They have made sure the child was in no danger, which is what they set out to do. The extradition proceedings should be stopped right now. The parents have no case whatsoever to answer.

Why has there been no spokesman from the Southampton hospital putting out their side of the story?

Compassion needed for this family asap.

Here's the Change.Org petition:

https://www.change.org/p/police-david-cameron-and-co-release-brett-and-naghemeh-and-allow-them-to-choose-treatment-for-son-ashya

Is that a different petition to the one I linked to? The wording seems a bit different but they look the same. Shall I sign both?

Thanks for the link and the one for the petition jinglellsfrocks.

I'm very rarely in tears about anything but that poor grandmother brought me close.

As for the policeman ....!

Medicine has changed - the days of the arrogant consultant are waning. That is an out-dated stereotype.

S'ton hospital are in a bind - they cannot defend their position because of confidentiality. However they have said that they offered to facilitate a second medical opinion - what more could they do? It sounds as though they had explored all the options for this child, including proton therapy, but the parents could not accept the situation - and who can blame them?

I found, and cannot now find, a statement somewhere about it all on the NHS website.

I am sure the parents felt that they were acting in the child's best interests; as also the medics. A sorry situation, which the involvement of the media has exacerbated.

Sorry, Jingle didn't see your link. Yes, it's the same one.

Oh well. I've signed twice now. Thanks for putting it up again whenim. Get some more attention to it.

Just listened to the link jings and she is so so right in what she says, poor woman must be out of her mind with worry.
Totally disgraceful as to what has happened with the parents being arrested and being so far away from their son its inhumane in my honest opinion.
As to if the Proton treatment would work is a matter no one knows for sure do they? as all cases are different but surely the option should be available to them and the amount of manpower put into this by officials would have paid for the treatment be it successful or not.
I hope the Spanish Judge keeps to the known Spanish ethos of families being together and objects to the extradition and allows the parents to be with their little boy asap.

It was reported that the hospital did not report the child missing for six hours.

What was the reason for that?
It could have been for any number of reasons but it would be interesting to know why.
Searching for them on the premises, trying to contact them to ask them to bring the child back before the police were notified or that no member of staff had checked the child?

I mentioned that perhaps the parents were behaving irrationally before knowing more information. They had by all accounts thought this through very carefully.

That is a very good point, glammanana - huge resources, the cost of which could have been put to better use.

The links are to different petitions - I think a certain number of people have to sign before notice is taken so I hope there will not be more petitions as that will reduce the likelihood of any notice being taken.

I am sure that the Camerons will be very aware, empathetic and compassionate. I hope David Cameron intervenes and brings some common sense to this tragic situation and allows the parents to be reunited with their child (and their other children who will be upset and bewildered).

Did anyone hear the grandmother on the Today programme? It was very sad. Whatever the truth turns out to be - and I suspect that perceptions will be very relevant here - it is an absolute disgrace that the parents are in custody and the child alone in hospital. There are clearly so many ways this could be dealt with compassionately- such as one parent with a guard being allowed to stay with the little boy. Why are our police seeking extradition?

What a change in some posts between the first page and the last.

The reason that the medics etc are so exercised I think is because of the way that this was done. If the parents had discussed with the doctors their wish to take the child elsewhere, then proper plans could have been made to connect up with another hospital abroad, to make sure he had batteries for his feeding device, to send over the medical history etc. Instead they just "did a moonight flit" which raises concerns all round.

The parents most likely thought, as I would have, that time would be wasted whilst meetings were held, agreements to be made, papers to be drawn up, etc.

The parents have not broken any law and the warrant should never have been issued - so much for free movement in Europe.

The boy is now in a stable condition and moved from the HDU to a LDU - so the Spanish hospital must have done something right. Southamptom may be a hospital of excellence but they are still governend by NICE over what they can and can't offer on the NHS.

His father Brett King defended his actions in a video posted on YouTube, saying the family were seeking a treatment Ashya had not been offered.

The charity Cancer Research UK says proton beam treatment is only available on the NHS in the UK for eye conditions.

It says countries in Europe, Japan and the USA are using or testing the treatment for types of cancer, including spinal cord tumours and cancers of the prostate, lung, liver and brain, as well as some children's cancers.

Mr King said the family was not "neglecting" the boy and Ashya was "responding so much better" than he did in hospital.

Mr King said the couple had "pleaded" with health authorities in Southampton for Ashya to receive the treatment, but were told it would have "no benefit whatsoever".

If it was my 4 year old child in that same condition, I would also take every opportunity to find a cure.

It seems that, as usual, the UK is sitting back and waiting for other countries to produce the results - that won't be much comfort to those who have been prevented from pursuing that treatment in similar circumstances.

I heard Asha's garndmother on breakfast tv.... hooray for fiesty grandmas, I say. She did us other concerned grans proud!

I wonder why extradition is necessary and why the parents would be brought back to the UK when their child is in Spain? Warrants can be withdrawn or voided. Charges can be dropped. They could stop all this right now.

And, Cameron could have intervened long before now!

We don't know why the hospital and the English and Spanish police have acted as they have because we have only heard the family's side of the story. The authorities are bound by confidentiality.
The hospital has said that it was normal procedure for the boy to be taken out of the ward for periods as part of the rehabilitation process. They have also said that the chance to have a second opinion had been offered to the parents. The oncologist on Breakfast this morning said that around a hundred children have been funded by the NHS to have the proton treatment out of the UK.
The family were not going directly for that treatment. They made a thousand mile car journey with a very sick child to organise their property sale and then they apparently intended to go to eastern Europe for the treatment.
We really cannot judge without hearing both sides of the story and we may never do that.
I do not think that the hospital had any choice but to involve the police. If they had shrugged their shoulders and the boy's condition had deteriorated away from their care then they would have been criticised for different reasons.