Ashya King's father says he'll go against religion and allow son to have blood transfusion
Mirror, UK/September 13, 2014
By Patrick Hill
Despite Ashya's parents being devout Jevovah's witnesses, 51-year-old father Brett King says that when it comes to a straight choice, his son comes before his religion
Ashya King’s dad has vowed to let the five-year-old brain cancer victim have a blood transfusion if needed – despite it being against his religion.
Brett and wife Naghmeh are devout Jehovah’s Witnesses who have brought up their seven children in the faith, which says it is a sin to accept a blood transfusion.
But Brett, 51, is determined to see desperately ill Ashya get better and is willing to do whatever it takes – even if it means defying his own strongly-held beliefs.
He said: “I’m a Jehovah’s Witness, but I’m a father first – and I’d do anything for my son.
“If a child needs treatment they should give them the treatment. It’s not for the parents to say. We just want the best for Ashya.”
The family was in the Czech Republic yesterday where Ashya was preparing for the first of 30 sessions of £70,000 radical proton beam therapy, starting in the capital Prague tomorrow morning.
After Ashya was diagnosed with a brain tumour on July 22, Brett was determined to get him treated with the pioneering therapy he had read about on the internet.
He feared the radiation treatment he was to be given in the UK would be too strong for a five-year-old.
But doctors here refused to allow the proton beam treatment, dismissing it as “unproven”. So 17 days ago Brett and wife Naghmeh, 45, smuggled Ashya out of Southampton General Hospital and fled with him to Spain.
They were arrested there after British cops issued an international arrest warrant, and spent three nights in jail. But now they feel all their sacrifices were worth it.
Brett said: “What Ashya has now is proper treatment. Everything is explained nicely so we feel comfortable, we feel taken care of.”
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