Oshin Kiszko from Perth celebrated his sixth birthday early just before Easter.
It was a superhero party for a little boy who loves the action heroes the best.
His parents were there, his two big sisters and loving friends joined by Batman, IronMan, Superman and even Wolverine.
It was a day of memories and love but a day tinged with fear and sadness.
His parents, Angela Kiszko and Adrian Strachan had to move his birthday forward a few weeks because at 7.30am the next day, on Easter Sunday – against their wishes, and against every legal move they had made – they were forced to take Oshin to hospital for intensive chemotherapy in a court ordered bid to buy the dying little boy more time.
Treatment his family don’t want him to have.
Oshin's sixth birthday. Image via Facebook.
Oshin was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a fast growing, high grade and invasive tumour last December but his parents have refused chemotherapy and radiotherapy because they do not want their son to become a “lab rat”.
However after family court intervention a judge overruled them and Oshin is now undergoing chemotherapy in what his family say is treatment similar to living in “Nazi Germany.”
His parents, Angela Kiszko and Adrian Strachan tried to stop the treatment but a judge overruled them. Image via GoFundMe.
A doctor from the Princess Margaret Hospital took legal action after Angela and Colin refused the treatment.
The court was told Oshin would die within a few months without treatment but would have a 30 per cent prospect of surviving for five years if chemotherapy started immediately. The court heard he had a 50 per cent chance with both chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
The West Australian reports that in his judgment Family Court chief justice Stephen Thackray said the evidence suggested Angela and Colin had “tried to approach this matter on the basis of what is in the best interests of their child”.
But the prospect of a long-term cure is the matter “that most heavily must weigh in the decision”.
“One other matter that I think ought to be given weight is that the uncontested medical evidence is that the great majority of other parents faced with a similar decision would opt for the intervention that the hospital proposes,” he said.
The court was told Oshin would die within a few months without treatment. Image via GoFundMe.
And so, against their wishes Oshin began treatment.
As his son went to hospital his father, a Fly- in-Fly out mining worker in WA, posted on Facebook “Just when you think you know what pain is something comes along to show you some more
In hospital watching young Oshin getting sick and there is not a fucking thing i can do about it.”
Oshin was diagnosed with Medulloblastoma just before Christmas when he came sick.
Family friend Lynda Jones wrote on a GoFund Me page that Oshin’s mum, Angela became concerned when he vomited two mornings in a row.
Doctors began a series of tests and found the tumour.
"It's unusual for Medulloblastoma to spread outside the brain” she writes “but Oshin's has. “
“He has since had surgery on his brain to remove a tumour. Ange, Colin and their family and friends held their breath until yesterday, when the results came back. Oshin does not have the benign tumour they were hoping for. He had an aggressive, cancerous form of malignant brain tumour.”
Colin wrote: "Just when you think you know what pain is something comes along to show you some more." Image via Facebook.
Oshin’s parents were told that he needed a nine-month regime of intensive chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
Lynda Jones says, “They were told if he were to survive the treatment, he would be severely incapacitated for the rest of his life.”
She has begun a Change petition asking WA Premier Colin Barnett to intervene:
She writes:
“The parents opted not to do this and were more confident in following specialist, non-invasive treatments available offshore. That was when the nightmare began.
The parents were treated as criminals and the family put under Federal Police Watch, so they couldn’t leave the country.
Then, 4 months after the initial diagnosis, the parents were summoned to the Family Court in WA, where the judge used the legal power bestowed on him to override the parent’s decision and ordered the commencement of Chemotherapy, against their will and with the understanding that the chance of survival was not good.”
Angela said her son would become a 'lab rat.' Image via GoFundMe.
Oshin's mum Angela Kiszko, who worked as a carer and nurse assistant and has studied naturopathy told the court that she had seen her mother and step-mother both died from cancer and she had witnessed the side effects of treatment.
“I would not put myself through such harsh treatments and such a huge barrage of chemo agents, how can I possibly allow them to do this to Oshin,” she said.
“I have watched and learned what all these children and their families go through and it is nothing short of toxic hell. The children are not really alive, they are completely drugged and exhausted and on the verge of death.
“I don’t see how this is a treatment, yes you may kill some cancer cells for a while at the same time you have completely destroyed the child’s quality of life. It almost feels like Nazi Germany and I am honestly sickened by the treatment of all these children.”
Lynda Jones told Seven News said Oshin’s parents were “very knowing” and had made “an informed decision that there are better options available elsewhere, specialised medical options”.
“If he survives, he will have hearing aids, cataracts in his eyes, his spine won’t develop properly, he will never have an IQ over 70,” she told Seven News.
She said it was “absolutely heartbreaking.”
“Only a parent who has been presented with this diagnosis could appreciate what they have been going through,” she said.
“Only a parent who has been presented with this diagnosis could appreciate what they have been going through,” Image via GoFundMe.
Colin took to Facebook last week on his son’s actual sixth birthday.
“Today is Oshin's 6th birthday and his 6th day of court imposed Chemotherapy as sad as it is i will work at making it a beautiful day for him,” he wrote
I love you my little soldier may your strength and determination get you through all this.”
Top Comments
Having helped as a carer several people LIVE their lives with cancer who chose alternative treatments and refused chemical/radiation therapies, I have since changed my mind on alternative therapies. All three people have lived better lives. One is still fighting the cancer after being told 15 months ago that she had three months left to live and absolutely must begin chemical therapy. She is at home, with her family and pets, making slow but positive recovery. Another lady I cared for died after 12 months, but not fighting for her life, not blanched white and underweight like a POW, serene and tranquil and having enjoyed her final 12 months, eating with her family, living with her family. The third person I visited is a man who, 5 years ago, refused hospitalisation and trusted the highly skilled people. He is back running his farm after having tumours in his brain and lungs.
Science isn't evil, but it is't the law. If major drug companies invested the money into testing alternative treatments, they would be new evidence! But why would a drug company want you to know that?
Wasn't the Nazi movement once "mainstream"?
Christopher
Thank goodness Science is winning out over the anti-vaxxers and anti-mainstream-medicine nut jobs.