http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...ning+to+Canada
Jehovah's Witness teen declared cancer-free
By ALISON GREGOR
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Canadian Press
NEW YORK -- A British Columbia teenager whose religious beliefs led her into a legal battle over her cancer treatment was going home yesterday after doctors at a New York hospital pronounced her free of the disease.
The 15-year-old, a Jehovah's Witness, won the right to undergo a cutting-edge chemotherapy method known as blood avoidance treatment.
Chemotherapy affects the body's ability to replace blood cells and often requires transfusions. Schneider Children's Hospital in New York has a program aimed at avoiding or minimizing the use of blood in treating patients.
The girl, identified only as Sarah because of a court publication ban, began her treatment in New York in May and was able to complete it without having a blood transfusion.
"I hope that other doctors and hospitals will learn from this experience," she said. "They've treated me as a woman and not as a child."
Jehovah's Witnesses believe blood is a sacred source of life not to be misused or tampered with. The faith interprets literally a passage from scripture that forbids the ingestion of blood.
Adults have the right to refuse blood transfusions, but the B.C. government sought to prevent Sarah from making that decision as she is still a minor. After five months of medical treatment at B.C. Children's Hospital in Vancouver and two months in the courts, the province's Supreme Court ruled in May that Sarah could be transferred to the New York City hospital to complete her chemotherapy.
Her father said he was overjoyed that his daughter was finally able to focus her energy on her treatment.
"Sarah's been able to fight her disease on her own terms without having the added stress of fighting the government.
"This is a real victory. It's a human rights issue."
They were scheduled to return to the Okanagan yesterday, where Sarah said she looked forward to having a sleepover with her best friends, cuddling her dog and getting back to school.
In a program developed over the course of a decade in consultation with Jehovah's Witnesses, Schneider Children's Hospital has been able to minimize the use of blood transfusions or eliminate them through blood conservation techniques and the use of erythropoietin, a synthetic hormone that stimulates bone marrow to produce red blood cells. Still, New York State law requires doctors to provide blood transfusions if all else fails.
"This is a blood avoidance program; it's not a blood elimination program," said Jeffrey Lipton, director of the hospital's pediatric hematology-oncology and stem cell transplantation unit. "We will use blood to save somebody's life."
Sarah's bone cancer, osteogenic sarcoma, is one of the most common among children and young adults, and one of the easiest to treat successfully without transfusions.
While Jehovah's Witnesses are the biggest group involved in discovering and improving methods of blood avoidance, many other people take advantage of existing programs at various hospitals throughout the United States, seeking to avoid blood-borne illnesses.
Blood avoidance programs conserve blood, which is an expensive resource, and thus have saved hospitals that have invested in developing them millions of dollars, said Dr. Michael LaCorte, director of Schneider's blood avoidance program.
"It's a huge savings," he said.
As part of the agreement, Sarah's family is paying for her treatment, which can typically cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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