5-year-old Cancer Patient Taken Out of the Country By Parents - Elisa Weich 5th Period

            Ashya King of Britain is a 5-year-old cancer patient who was taken from the hospital, against doctor's orders.  His parents, Brett and Naghemeh King, took he and his six siblings to Spain, allegedly to sell a house they owned there in order to pay for alternative proton radiation treatment in the Czech Republic, which had been refused to them in Britain.  While proton treatment is funded by the NHS (National Health Service), there is currently only one facility that offers it, the Clatterbridge Cancer Center in Wirral, and only for eye cancer patients. After refusing to return to Britain in an extradition hearing on Monday, August 25, Ashya's parents remained in Spanish custody for 72 hours, awaiting a decision by a panel of Spanish judges later in the week.
         
            Above all, this article worries me. While they are keeping this boy under police supervision while he is hospitalized in Spain, who knows if they have access to his medical records to give him proper care. Additionally, the doctors who are now caring for him are not the same physicians that have been caring for him through his cancer battle. Taking this boy out of the hospital was one thing, but now there is a whole new set of issues to address. I fear that this kind of situation will arise more often in our country due to the more socialized health care that is being enacted by the Affordable Care Act in the United States currently.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/02/world/europe/parents-who-took-ill-son-abroad-fight-order-to-return-to-britain.html?hpw&rref=world&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHedThumbWell&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0