No less than five well respected lawyers gathered outside the courtroom on November 4. They had all come for the same hearing, and remarkably, were all on the same side. One had to wonder if a high profile athlete was about to walk in with the best lawyers money could buy. Perhaps it would be a Hannibal Lecter type shackled and led in by guards this team had come to oppose. The high priced dream team entered the court room discussing strategies amongst themselves as they awaited this mysterious foe. Just over an hour later a mom rushed into the courtroom with her little boy holding her hand. She wasn’t desperately running from the villain these lawyers were here to face. She was the villain.
This monster had just rushed to the courtroom from the Alberta Children’s Hospital where her son Kai was scheduled to have a leukemia treatment. Denise had received notice of this hearing only the night before. She loaded herself with caffeine staying up most of the night just to get some kind of affidavit together. Denise knew there was evidence to defend her in the form of doctor’s letters and medical records but she would have no way of getting these by morning. Long before daylight she rushed Kai out the door to swear in her affidavit. Thankfully an Angel had allowed Denise to come to her home early that morning and witness it for her. She arrived early for Kai’s treatment as she always does just to find out the schedule had been changed without her knowledge. Frustrated but hopeful she would have a chance to speak in court on Kai’s behalf she raced downtown to the courthouse.
As the distraught mother prepared to face off against this bunch I played with Kai outside of the court so he wouldn’t have to witness the debate over his life and death situation. Denise pleaded with the judge to have the stay on administering one drug, granted on October 19, remain in place. Denise had watched her son almost die from this drug, Erwinea Asparaginase, because of an allergic reaction the last time it was administered. It was only one drug out of dozens of drugs Kai had taken as part of his treatment protocol and not even originally part of the protocol. If the reaction had happened just a little later while Denise and Kai slept her son would not be with her today.
Many Court Rules were broken by those there to bully Kai’s mom into submission. Denise was served less than 18 hours before the hearing, evidence was stated as new that was dated as July 6 for a November 4 hearing, new information was allowed in without Denise having a chance to review or respond to it, that new information was allowed in at all is contrary to Court Rule 12.68. Apparently the Dream Team was unaware of the rules to be followed. Unfortunately this didn’t stop the judge from lifting the stay. Denise would once again have to live in terror as the drug she knew could kill her son was put into him.
It didn’t take long for her terror to turn to reality. On November 7, just three days after the stay was lifted, Kai received the Erwinia Asparaginase. Kai was discharged from the hospital an hour later and went home with his mom to cuddle in and go to sleep. Hours later Kai was having a severe allergic reaction and Denise was once again rushing him to the hospital that had just discharged him so his life could be saved. On the earlier injections it had been speculated that it could be another drug causing the reaction and so it was continued despite Denise’s protests until the stay on October 19. On this occasion there could be no doubt; the only chemotherapy drug Kai had received in days was Erwinea Asparaginase. This was one time Denise was hoping she wasn’t right but unfortunately she was.
In a desperate last attempt to make sure her little boy never received this drug again Denise headed back to court the soonest she could. The earliest court date she could get was November 10 but because Kai was still recovering from his last reaction to asparaginase this would give her time. She filed an application stating the aforementioned Court Rules being broken and Kai’s latest reaction as grounds to have the stay on the drug reinstated. When the opposing lawyer got up to speak her heart rose as he told the court he believed the Erwinea Asparaginase was now discontinued from Kai’s protocol by the hospital. If this was the case, obviously there should be no danger in the courts reinstating the previous stay of October 19 right? Denise’s heart quickly sank again as the other side said they would not agree and asked that her application be dismissed. The lawyer stated the very same rules that he himself had broken only days earlier as a reason for dismissing the application. The rules apparently only apply if the judge decides they apply because he refused to review the case at all and dismissed her application. Once again she must go back to living in fear for her son’s life.
About three quarters of the way through the hearing on November 4 a lawyer from the hospital came out to shush Kai and me as we played. The only ones left in the courtroom were the ones fighting to determine his future. This lawyer was quoted in Avenue Calgary Magazine as saying, “The courts are not the most ideal place to resolve these questions, so I try to see whether we can resolve things before we get to that point”, as she talked about her job. When I asked her before court why her department had never even contacted Denise to try and mediate matters she stated, “It’s not our policy to talk to those without legal counsel”. How very fitting it was that she was the one to shush us. Her department and this “Dream Team” of lawyers are clearly there, at the expense of the taxpayers, to shush anyone who does not fully agree with their point of view.
Postscript: Denise has received an email from the hospital stating they will not be administering Erwinea Asparaginase to Kai anymore. While Denise is encouraged by this, she has been told this before. She will be fighting to get her rights back to advocate medically for Kai on January 12, 2012. Considering that she was right all along it would be hoped that this would be an easy decision for the courts. Unfortunately she has relied on the truth prevailing too many times now to be overly optimistic.
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