Boy who refused treatment on religious grounds dies
Pastor Dale Morgan
updated 1:25 a.m. EST, Fri November 30, 2007
*Boy who refused treatment on religious grounds dies*
* Story Highlights
* Dennis Lindberg, 14, was a Jehovah's Witness and a leukemia patient
* A judge denied a request to force the boy to have a blood transfusion
* Judge: Boy knew "he's basically giving himself a death sentence"
* Boy's birth parents believed their son should have had the transfusion
SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- A few hours after a judge ruled that a
14-year-old Jehovah's Witness sick with leukemia had the right to refuse
a blood transfusion that might have helped him, the boy died, a
newspaper reported.
A judge said Dennis Lindberg, shown in 2005, "understands the
consequences of his decision."
Dennis Lindberg died Wednesday night at Children's Hospital and Regional
Medical Center, his father, Dennis Lindberg Sr., told the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer.
Hospital spokeswoman Teri Thomas said she could not confirm or deny
anything about the case at the request of the boy's legal guardian, his
aunt Dianna Mincin.
Earlier Wednesday, Skagit County Superior Court Judge John Meyer had
denied a motion by the state to force the boy to have a blood
transfusion. The judge said the eighth-grader knew "he's basically
giving himself a death sentence."
"I don't believe Dennis' decision is the result of any coercion. He is
mature and understands the consequences of his decision," the judge said
during the hearing.
"I don't think Dennis is trying to commit suicide. This isn't something
Dennis just came upon, and he believes with the transfusion he would be
unclean and unworthy."
Doctors had given Dennis a 70 percent chance of surviving the next five
years with the transfusions and other treatment, the judge added.
Doctors diagnosed the boy's leukemia in early November. They began
chemotherapy at Children's Hospital, but stopped a week ago because his
blood count was too low, the Skagit Valley Herald reported. The boy
refused the transfusion on religious grounds.
However, his birth parents, Lindberg and Rachel Wherry, who do not have
custody and flew from Boise, Idaho, to be at the hearing, believed their
son should have had the transfusion and suggested he had been unduly
influenced by his aunt, who is also a Jehovah's Witness.
The aunt has declined to talk about the case.
The boy's father told the Post-Intelligencer the ruling shocked him but
after visiting his son later Wednesday, he decided not to appeal. He
said doctors told him Wednesday evening that the boy, unconscious since
Tuesday, had likely suffered brain damage.