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

You think Jane? Like the little girl with cerebral palsy whose parents had to raise £8,000 for her operation, and is now starting to walk.

Good news indeed.

Fantastic! We do need some kind of enquiry if only because of the 'no smoke without fire/they must have done something to be put in prison' attitudes which some people have.

POGS to say someone is 'very media savvy' these days is almost the same as saying they are artful, manipulative and lying, although I am sure that is not what you meant.

I understand the family were not aware of the hoo-ha at first. Also, when the police raided the Grandmother's house at the beginning of it all, she in all likelihood told them about the provision made by the family to ensure the child continued to receive food.

Let's hope they will be reunited with their little boy soon.

Whatever the rights or wrongs of anyone's actions, he needs his parents with him.

Yes quite Galen and that is the crux of the matter. Raising money for the treatment etc is making a lot of assumptions. If he is as ill as he appears to be then no amount of radiotherapy may keep him alive, let alone restore him to health.
I'm sure everyone was trying to do their best for the little boy in this awkward situation but given the constraints of more than one legal system, child protection system and health system it is a miracle it has been sorted out as quickly as it seems to have been. I hope the press will calm down now and give the family and the hospital some peace and privacy.

If the Czech hospital decides it's not appropriate on receipt of the medical records etc, I wonder what will happen to all the money raised?

They'll probably start a Trust with it, like the Anthony Nolan Trust.

There are some apologies to be made. It should never have gone so far. Incredible.

According to BBC News, Southampton hospital has just said that they "would have no objection to Ashya seeking alternative treatment" !!! Words fail me.

Yes, Aka, I do.

MiniM - why are you so surprised that the hospital have said they would have no objection to them seeking other treatment? - they had already said that they would facilitate a second opinion to help the family make a reasoned decision. That is the right action in these circumstances, and that is what they did.

As I have said before, all the parties (apart from the media) in this situation have acted in good faith; and we should ask ourselves how we might have acted.

You are a hospital doctor and a family are finding it hard to accept the realities of a child's prognosis - what do you do? Do you send them off to have an inappropriate treatment that you do not think will succeed and raise false hopes? - or do you, as the hospital did, offer to facilitate a second opinion so that the family can get another perspective. If you think the family are taking steps that will be to the detriment of the child, do you ignore that and shrug your shoulders and look away? - or do you raise the issue of how this child's interests might best be protected? If you find that the child has left the hospital against advice and you believe him to be in danger, do you do nothing, or do you seek the help of the police to find the child and make sure his needs are being met?

You are a policeperson and you receive information from a hospital that a child has left hospital against medical advice and needs to be traced for his own safety - do you log the call and do nothing, or do you take steps to find that child?

You are a news reporter and get to hear of this - do you recognise that it is a situation that needs to be dealt with some subtlety and that there are sensitive and private issues that you need to handle with maturity and restraint? Or do you blast the news channels with the story and whip up a frenzy of hatred against the doctors and the police so that you can get your name on a strapline?

For once - and I never thought I would say this - I agree with David Cameron - a rapid outbreak of common sense is what is needed.

And everyone needs to avoid being seduced by the media frenzy into finding someone to blame.

Good post Mishap. I agree absolutely.

Yes well said Mishap.

Mishap, you have laid it all out so logically and succinctly that there's nothing more to say on the subject. Brilliant.

Mishap I didn't word it very well! What I meant was - what legal right does the hospital have to object? If they did object, would that mean the parents would not be able to seek other treatment? Supposing he parents disagreed with a second opinion and still wanted to pursue the proton treatment. I don't know what the legal position would be if the hospital objected.

They are responding to the media attitude that the reason for all the hooha was that the hospital were preventing them from getting treatment else where, so they are saying that they do NOT object. and they DID offer to help with a second opinion.

I have no problem with their statement. In fact it is probably the nearest we are going to get to a statement from them laying out in detail the conversations they have had with the parents. We have had the conversation as the parents saw it, but not as the hospital did. Patient confidentiality bans that.

There was obviously a huge break down in communication between the doctors and the parents. However it took a while before the CPS, the Police decided they did not need to extradite the parents after all and I'm not sure this would have happened if not for the family's use of social media bringing it to the wider public.

Meanwhile a very ill five year old boy has been very much alone. The stress and anxiety of being separated from his parents has not been in his best interests at all. What must "the authorities" have been thinking to have his parents jailed.

The same mindset as the people who jailed a woman for rescuing her father from a 'care' home where he was not being cared for.

" Mr Johnson, the Mayor of London, said: "It seems pretty obvious to me that the parents and the suffering child should be united and if they've got a plan to help cure their boy's illness then they should be supported in that. I've probably gone as far I can go, it sounds potty to me, frankly, but I don't know the details of the case.

"Every person's instinct will be that the parents have care of the child. somebody's going to have to do some very, very lengthy explaining about what the hell went on here."

Totally agree Boris. Ridiculous cock-up.

Petallus

POGS to say someone is 'very media savvy' these days is almost the same as saying they are artful, manipulative and lying, although I am sure that is not what you are saying.

If you were sure then you would have not felt a need to say it.

If I thought they were artful, manipulative or lying I would come right out with it and say so. Not everybody is media savvy or even computer savvy and I put myself in that bracket and that was my comparison, nothing more.

I still think things would have been sorted out quicker if the family had put their footage out earlier showing the food and battery charger , maybe told the grandmother, who must have been pulling her hair out with worry, or a relative they were OK and they could have informed the authorities the concern over the feeding of Ashya was not an issue. They are an intelligent family and it would have been obvious the hospital would contact the police and the police have a duty to then trace the family.

I agree with posts regarding the medical side of this case who are playing devils advocate and pointing out proton beam therapy may not be suitable and if you check the web you will see since 2008 - 2014 there have been more patients per year being sent abroad for treatment. Not brilliant but it is being dealt with over the coming years as stated. I also agree with those who say it was heavy handedly dealt with but only after the family was found, not prior to the families footage showing the charger and food supply, I truly believe there was a genuine concern for them.

I don't however understand why it has taken so long for the CPS to decide to drop the case and the whole thing from the time the family were found has been awful. I am pleased the parents have now been released and they are given the opportunity to seek treatment or find out if the treatment will indeed help Ashya.

POGS I'm sorry if I misunderstood your post.

However, saying someone is media savvy is not always a compliment, especially in certain contexts. It was always a criticism when used about Princess Diana for instance. It implies lack of sincerity and a willingness to spin the truth for one's own ends.

I don't think the family deliberately withheld the info about their situation with feeding tubes etc. in order to manipulate the situation.

The parents still have to wait until Thursday for a Spanish judge to confirm that there will be no prosecution and so free them from prison.

That's odd.

An hour ago on BBC news 24 they were talking to their son and he was asked if his parent's were free yet. He said yes, somebody was on the way to fetch them'.

I hope your wrong Absent or it is looking like a another issue to be dealt with.