Report by the Miror – ‘The isolation of five-year-old brain cancer patient Ashya King from his parents in Spain is ‘fundamentally and morally unacceptable’, a leading charity said today.
Ashya is being treated in hospital in Malaga while a court in Madrid has ordered that Brett and Naghmeh must be detained for up to 72 hours while an extradition request from Britain is considered, following the removal of the boy from hospital in Southampton without doctors’ consent.
Sarah Lindsell, chief executive of The Brain Tumour Charity, said: “Whatever the facts of the situation facing Ashya King’s family, The Brain Tumour Charity knows, from its experience of working with families over many years, that separating a desperately ill child from their family has significant emotional and psychological consequences
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It has a profound impact not only on the child, but on their brothers and sisters, their parents and wider family.
“Forced separation will cause additional trauma for the family, who are already facing devastation from the diagnosis of the brain tumour, their young child undergoing major surgery and the possibility of gruelling treatments to come.
“For a five-year-old boy to be isolated from his parents in an unfamiliar hospital, in a country where he does not speak the language, appears fundamentally and morally unacceptable in these circumstances.
“We understand the court case has been adjourned today, leaving the King family facing a further night of separation and uncertainty and no guarantee that a resolution will be found tomorrow.
“We implore the relevant authorities to work together to reunite them urgently and our thoughts remain with the King family at this time.”
The Kings – who are Jehovah’s Witnesses – went on the run with their son last Thursday after falling out with medics at Southampton Hospital over treatment for his aggressive brain tumour.
Cops tracked them down in Spain – where they were hoping to sell their holiday home near Malaga to raise £100,000 to fund advanced proton beam therapy abroad – and arrested the pair on suspicion of ‘cruelty’ on Saturday.
Ashya is being treated under police guard at Malaga’s Materno-Infantil Hospital where his condition is ‘stable.’
