http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs....507230484/1075

Mother's medical wishes overruled
Judge orders ill boy's blood transfusion

By Gail Palmer
gpalmer@news-press.com
Published by news-press.com on July 23, 2005

A Lee County judge overruled a mother's religious objections Friday afternoon to order a blood transfusion for a 12-year-old boy.

Doctors testified that Appollo Raymond could die from complications of sickle cell anemia without the transfusion. His ailment is an incurable inherited disease in which deformed red blood cells can't carry oxygen throughout the body.

The boy's mother, Leslie Raymond, had refused to let her son have a transfusion because she is a member of Jehovah's Witnesses, a religion that believes the Bible forbids transfusions.
Appollo Raymond has been hospitalized since Tuesday and was listed in serious condition Friday afternoon.

After questioning Leslie Raymond and Dr. Enad Salman, who heads pediatric oncology at Children's Hospital at HealthPark,

Judge James Seals said he believed the mother's religious principles posed a threat to the child.

"This is a very difficult balancing act for the court," Seals said. "I try to give every deference to the religious preference of the parent, but the life interest of the child supercedes the liberty interest of the parent."

Seals also asked whether alternative treatments are acceptable to Jehovah's Witnesses had been considered before ruling that Salman could go ahead with the transfusion when he thinks it's necessary.

As of Friday night, no information was available on whether the transfusion had occurred.

The hearing was held partially in Seals' courtroom and partially over the telephone with Leslie Raymond, who is from Haiti and does not speak English, and Salman at the hospital with two Creole interpreters.

Also at the hospital were Jack Schiefelbein, a hospital liaison for Jehovah's Witnesses, and Judy Flowers, a medical social worker.

Officials with the Department of Children & Families, Seals and another Creole interpreter were in the courtroom.

Leslie Raymond is "a wonderful person and a good mother," Flowers said. "I'm sorry it had to come to this."

Schiefelbein said he provided Salman a list of alternative treatments that were acceptable to Jehovah's Witnesses, including drugs for pediatric patients.

"Whether they would work in this case, I don't know. I'm not a doctor," he said.

Salman said he read the three articles Schiefelbein faxed him and concluded they were to prevent sickle cell complications.

"They won't work in an acute case," he said.

Salman said Appollo's condition was deteriorating.

What started as a pain crisis, fairly common in sickle cell, was turning into pneumonia and blockage of most of Appollo's left lung. By Friday afternoon, Salman said, Appollo's lung capacity was down to 50 percent, and he had developed acute chest syndrome.

"We are 48 hours behind the normal standard of care. He should have been transfused 48 hours ago. We may be beyond the point of no return," Salman said.

Still, he said, if the transfusion went well, Appollo's prognosis was good because this was his first hospitalization since January 2000.

— Staff writer Sarah Lundy contributed to this report.

__________________
Mr. Jan B. Wade
Blood Management Consultant
Enhance Outcomes - Control Cost
For Information Call - 360 296-1807
Email