Tyrell Dueck, 13; family refused cancer treatments
Jason...@virgin.net
Tyrell Dueck, 13; family refused cancer treatments
SASKATOON -- Faced with the amputation of a leg and painful chemotherapy
treatments, 13-year-old Tyrell Dueck and his family fought doctors and
the
Saskatchewan government for their right to say no.
But despite his family's hope that their fundamentalist Christian faith
and the
alternative treatments they sought in Mexico would save the boy, Tyrell
lost his
battle against bone cancer and died Wednesday night in a Saskatoon
hospital.
Joseph Bourgault of St. Brieux, Sask., who had spearheaded fund-raising
efforts
to help the family defray medical costs, said that Tyrell's condition
deteriorated
within a week of returning home from Tijuana in May.
The boy spent the last week in palliative care.
``I understand the family got great cooperation and respect from the
doctors at St.
Paul's hospital,'' Bourgault said Thursday. ``He was struggling and they
were
managing [his pain] for him.''
After months of defending their decision to refuse conventional
treatment, Tyrell's
grieving parents Tim and Yvonne Dueck were in seclusion Thursday.
``We just need some time to deal with this,'' Tyrell's aunt, Becky
Hildebrandt, said
on behalf of the family from Martensville, just dnorth of Saskatoon.
Supporters said the family should have no regrets.
Bourgault said Tyrell's funeral has been set for 2 p.m. Saturday.
Twice the Saskatchewan government took the Duecks to court in an effort
to force
the boy to undergo conventional treatment.
First, a judge handed control of Tyrell's care to the government. After
two rounds
of chemotherapy, Tyrell himself refused treatment.
In March, the government went back to court and Queen's Bench Justice
Allisen
Rothery ruled Tyrell did not have the mental capacity to refuse
treatment because
he was deeply influenced by his father, whom she said had given his son
misinformation.
The Social Services Ministry dropped the case after doctors reported the
bone
cancer in the boy's leg had spread to his lungs.
``I wish it had turned out differently,'' Social Services spokesman Bill
Carney said
Thursday, adding the news had taken him by surprise.
``We express our condolences.''
The Duecks ended up taking their son to Mexico, where doctors are free
to
practice unconventional treatments not sanctioned in the rest of North
America.
In Tijuana, they spent nearly $50,000 for treatments involving herbs,
vitamins and
laetrile -- an extract of apricot pits -- at American Biologics
Hospital. Doctors
there said there was no indication the cancer had spread.
Tim Dueck said at the time he wasn't sure what to make of the radically
different
medical assessments.
``I guess you could view it two ways,'' he said. ``You could approach it
from the
religious side and say he was healed. Or you could say [the lung cancer]
was
never there in the first place.''
When the family returned home they were happy and optimistic.
``He gained a little bit of weight, his hair has come back, he's doing
well,'' Tim
said at the time.
``It's a waiting game. It's taking it one day at a time.''
Bourgault said the family still faces about $15,000 in bills but said
the money was
probably worth it.
``He was better off for going to Mexico,'' he said. ``At the time they
were there, he
did extremely well.
``I think they were pleased they were finally given their right to go
there. They
probably wished they had been able to do that right off the bat. That
would
probably have increased Tyrell's chances for a full recovery.''