Parents of brain cancer boy Ashya 'put him at risk' when they fled abroad
Parents of brain cancer boy Ashya 'put him at risk' when they fled abroad
Brain cancer patient Ashya King's parents "put him at risk" by removing him from hospital without consent and taking him abroad for treatment, a report has found. Brett and Naghmeh King, who sparked an international police hunt when they took their son to Prague for proton beam therapy, acted after their relationship with doctors at Southampton General Hospital "deteriorated over time". But their son, who was five at the time, was placed "at risk of serious harm if anything untoward had happened with regard to the nasogastric tube", said the Portsmouth Safeguarding Children Board report. The journey for Ashya to the Czech Republic "must have been difficult and if anything had gone wrong the consequences would have been significant", it added.
We are thankful that we did the research and we chose a treatment that was less aggressive than the one they were going to give to us because I’d hate to think with that treatment where would we be today
The Kings fled Britain with Ashya in 2012 as they wanted him to have proton beam therapy, which was regarded as less aggressive but was not available on the NHS. They were arrested in Spain but later allowed to go to the Czech Republic where their son has been treated. Last week, he was said to be progressing well. The board's report recognised that a breakdown in trust between the parents and medical staff was partly down to a delay in obtaining a second opinion for the parents. It also highlighted "the limitation of the current legal processes available to professionals working with children and families in these circumstances".
The agencies involved acted appropriately and, given the complicated nature of the case, there was little that could have been done differently in the effort to safeguard the child's welfare
Reg Hooke, board chairman
