A 14-year-old boy died Wednesday night in Seattle, hours after a Skagit County judge affirmed his right to reject treatment.

Dennis Lindberg, of Mount Vernon, died around 6 p.m. at Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center in Seattle. As a Jehovah’s Witness, Lindberg refused blood transfusions in his fight against leukemia, against doctors’ advice that he needed the transfusions to survive.

In court Wednesday, Superior Court Judge John Meyer said that Lindberg, though in the eighth grade, had the right to make that decision.

Doctors at Children’s diagnosed Lindberg’s leukemia early this month and began giving him chemotherapy. Because such treatment destroys the body’s ability to make red blood cells, transfusions were necessary, doctors said.

Lindberg’s relatives were in disagreement about whether the boy should have been forced to get the transfusions. His aunt, who was his legal guardian and is also a Jehovah’s Witness, supported his decision to refuse them. Lindberg’s parents, who live in Idaho, disagreed with their son and his guardian.

His doctors at Children’s supported the boy’s decision, Meyer said, although one doctor told the judge earlier that the boy’s blood count was so low he could die overnight. The case came to court after officials at Children’s reported it to the state, which went to court to force the transfusion.

Ethics experts and Jehovah’s Witness officials said such a court case is unusual these days.

“With an adolescent, the situation is much more complex,” says Dr. Doug Diekema, an ethics consultant at the hospital. “We all know that 14-year-olds change their minds; they become adults, and they have completely different belief systems. And that makes you nervous.”

Unlike the situation with very young children, “with adolescents, I think we find ourselves much more profoundly conflicted.”

Dr. Benjamin Wilfond, the hospital’s director of pediatric bioethics, said medical providers, along with parents, try to balance competing needs. “You’re trying to respect their wishes, their evolving autonomy, balanced against wanting to protect them. Often, it’s difficult to achieve both under all circumstances.”

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Chemotherapy is used to kill cancer cells with anti-cancer drugs. This involves the injection of drugs to the patient either while confined in the hospital or as an out-patient. Often, the patient experiences nausea and fatigue that lasts up to several hours after a chemotherapy session.

Interferon Therapy is another option which uses interferons, a class of proteins that are released by virus-infected cells. They help normal cells to make antiviral proteins. Interferons also help the body to reduce leukemia cell proliferation, while strengthening the body’s immune response. Interferon-alpha (INFa) is frequently used to treat leukemia. Interferons are usually given subcutaneously (injected under the skin), although it may also be given intravenously (through the veins) or intramuscularly (injected into the muscles). Side effects of interferon therapy include fevers, chills, muscle aches, bone pain, headaches, fatigue, nausea, and vomiting. Such symptoms usually last for 1 to 2 weeks, but may be lessened by drugs such as acetaminophen.

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In the US, approximately 600 teens between ages 15 and 19 are diagnosed with cancer. The most common cancers in teens are Hodgkin’s disease, germ cell tumors, central-nervous system tumors, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, thyroid cancer, malignant melanoma and acute lymphoblastic leukemia. It was shown that teeners and young adults that participate in pediatric clinical trials have better survival rates than those treated at adult centers.

For teen-agers, facing cancer is more challenging because they are aware of the fact that the disease may lead to death. Teeners become more depressed and lonely, plus the fact that teeners experience psychological challenges such as identity crisis, peer pressure, intimacy and fertility.

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Cancer support groups orgs for teens:
Teenage Cancer Trust
Group Loop
Teens Living with Cancer
Planet Cancer

Stem cells for transplant are sourced from the patient himself, or from a donor. Peripheral blood stem cells are collected through a process called apheresis, where the blood is taken from the donor through a needle in one arm, then is placed in a machine that separates the white blood cells from the red blood cells. Only the white blood cells are needed by the patient, so the red blood cells are returned to the donor. Daily injections of Granulocyte-colony stimulating factor helps the transplanted stem cells to move to the peripheral circulation.

Umbilical cord blood can be taken from a new born’s umbilical cord if the parents allow it. This is then frozen and stored for future use.

In Ayurveda, Leukemia is viewed as an imbalance which results from the failure of the digestive system. The food is not ingested and broken down properly. This creates a poisonous slime which circulates in the body and kills the healthy parts in it. To remedy this, the three elements of vata, pitta and kapha present in the body must be rebalanced. This can be done through a balanced diet. Eating raw fruit and vegetables purifies the toxins in the digestive system. Also, a relaxed lifestyle will do wonders, along with proper sleep and exercise. By doing these, the toxins will be removed, the balance restored and positive energies are freer to heal the body.

Both sides has its good and bad sides. Conventional treatments are tried and tested by different hospitals on may patients therefore there is a degree of certainty on methods and results. However there are many side-effects to these kinds of treatment that until now is not yet fully remedied. Alternative treatments are currently untestable and there are no guarantees to the effectivity of the methods. However these are mostly harmless and they make use of natural substances. A combination of methods may be used but make sure that one method doesn’t affect the other negatively. Know the side-effects of these and the precautionary measures you must take in order to get the best results.