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Ashya King completes proton beam therapy after ‘dramatic’ improvement Ashya King to return to Spain after completing proton beam therapy
(about 7 hours later)
Ashya King, whose parents triggered an international police hunt when they removed him from a British hospital and headed to Spain, has completed his proton beam therapy for a brain tumour, the clinic treating him has said. The parents of Ashya King say they still fear returning to Britain, after a clinic treating the boy in Prague said he had completed his proton beam therapy for a brain tumour.
The five-year-old is due to leave the Proton Therapy Centre (PTC) in the Czech capital, Prague, where he is said to have responded well to his treatment. Brett and Naghmeh King, from Portsmouth, triggered an international police hunt when they removed their five-year-old son from Southampton hospital in August without the consent of doctors and travelled to Spain.
His parents, Brett, 51, and Naghmeh King, 45, from Southsea, Portsmouth, were arrested after they removed Ashya from Southampton general hospital on 28 August without medical consent, and took him and his six siblings to Spain, where they had previously lived. The couple had rejected conventional radiotherapy offered in Britain, believing proton beam treatment was more effective in limiting the collateral damage to other organs, and would lead to less severe long-term side effects for Ashya. But after a European arrest warrant was issued, they were arrested and held in a Madrid prison for three days. They were later released without charge.
The couple had rejected conventional radiotherapy offered in Britain, believing proton beam treatment was more effective in limiting the collateral damage to other organs, and would lead to less severe long-term side-effects for their son.
They were held in a Madrid prison for three days after a European arrest warrant was issued but later released without charge. They faced a protracted legal battle to get treatment in Prague as Ashya was made a ward of court.
A high court judge in London approved the treatment with the agreement of doctors who had been treating him in Southampton. Ashya is expected to undergo further treatment in Spain, possibly including chemotherapy.A high court judge in London approved the treatment with the agreement of doctors who had been treating him in Southampton. Ashya is expected to undergo further treatment in Spain, possibly including chemotherapy.
“Ashya does not have to stay in bed, he is able to sit and hold his own head, reacts with interest to his surroundings and faces the people around him,” said the clinic director Iva Taťounová. His parents said on Friday they did not feel safe enough to return to the UK.
Doctors have said if chemotherapy and radiotherapy are combined there is a 70-80% chance of a cure for medulloblastoma. Holding his son, Brett King said: “After some time we decided that perhaps it was best to return to Spain. We have a property there so life can be established quite easily for us.
Brett King said every parent should be aware that consent to treatment proposed by a doctor could influence the destiny of their child. “We should always ask ourselves whether we really have all the information and that we have done everything to ensure that our children receive the very best. The doctor may not know everything or can follow other interests, official, corporate or personal. I did my research, made my decision and I’m happy,” he said. “At the moment we don’t feel 100% safe, I suppose you would call it, contemplating being in England until perhaps they do this investigation into how everything was conducted for us,” he told Sky News. “Once that has been established then we can think about going back to England. But for the time being we have been in contact with a doctor in Spain so we are continuing with [Ashya’s] treatment in Spain instead of England.”
Asked why they were reluctant to return to Britain, he said: “Because there is so much still at stake. We wouldn’t want to lose Ashya. It would probably never happen, but just having that small risk that you don’t have to do anything wrong to have your children taken away and [be] thrown in prison …”
Iva Taťounová, the director of the Prague clinic, said Ashya had responded well to the treatment.
“Ashya does not have to stay in bed, he is able to sit and hold his own head, reacts with interest to his surroundings and faces the people around him.”
Doctors have said that if chemotherapy and radiotherapy are combined there is a 70-80% chance of a cure for the medulloblastoma.
Brett King said every parent should be aware that consent to treatment proposed by a doctor could influence the destiny of their child.
“We should always ask ourselves whether we really have all the information, and that we have done everything to ensure that our children receive the very best,” he said. “The doctor may not know everything, or can follow other interests, official, corporate or personal. I did my research, made my decision and I’m happy.”
Ashya’s case had previously been turned down by a specialist expert panel of doctors in Britain, on the basis that proton beam therapy offers no benefit that the child could not get from standard radiotherapy in the UK. But it emerged last month that NHS England had agreed to fund proton beam therapy for Ashya under the reciprocal healthcare arrangements that exist within the EU.