In Salem, Massachusetts, Kristen Anne Labrie has been charged with reckless child endangerment after being accused of withholding cancer medication from her 8-year old son. Her son, Jeremy Fraser, had been in remission from non-Hodgkins Lymphoma but now prosecutors say he will likely die from the disease.
According to the police report Jeremy had been diagnosed in 2006 and went through a five-phase regimen of treatment including drugs that he was to be given at home by his mother. It also indicated that she had cancelled a dozen of his chemotherapy treatments and hadn’t filled half of her son’s prescriptions.
In March, Dr. Alison Friedmann, the child’s oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, filed a report of suspected neglect with the Department of Social Services after discovering Fraser’s cancer had returned, something that should not have happened if he was on his medications.
When he was first diagnosed his chances of recovery were very good, 85 to 90 percent. Since being deprived of medication his chances have dropped to 10 percent.
Eric Fraser, Jeremy’s father, has said that he has ended all treatment for Jeremy so that he can die peacefully. He has called in hospice assistance.
According to Fraser and Salem police, the boy’s mother, Kristen LaBrie, allegedly failed to get her son the proper medical treatment, changing the child’s fate from one who had a chance of survival to one where doctors have told Fraser to make his son comfortable in his final days.
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