In Massachusetts the trial started yesterday, April 5, 2011 for Kristin LaBrie, the mother who is charged with attempted murder and endangerment of her autistic son by withholding medication for non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.  In October 2006, Jeremy Fraser was diagnosed with treatable cancer. Doctors gave him an 85 percent to 90 percent chance of recovery, according to Assistant District Attorney Kate B. MacDougall. The boy was given large doses of chemotherapy in the hospital and his cancer went into remission.

The cure rate for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is high but there is a risk of developing secondary malignancies.  Information collected about long-term survivors provides insight into the causes of second cancers. Patients with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma are usually treated with combination chemotherapy with or without radiation therapy.

Defense attorney Kevin James said LaBrie became exhausted and upset because the medication’s side effects made Jeremy sick. I feel it is a gross miscarriage of justice to be prosecuting this grieving mother for attempted murder because she allegedly withheld the very medications that more than likely were the actual agents for the secondary cancer – the real cause of death.  The long-term effects of chemotherapy on health include many kinds of complications. The most common is infertility. If you are young and have not yet had children your doctor will try to choose the drugs that are least likely to cause infertility. Other long term effects are much less common, but include heart disease, damage to the lungs and the or secondary malignancies in the future. In addition to treating cancer, chemotherapy drugs and radiation therapy are also carcinogenic, which means they can cause cancer. Other causes for pediatric secondary primary cancers include genetic disorders

Jeremy Fraser died in March 2009 at age nine of Leukemia.  At that time he was in custody of his father, Eric Fraser who passed away shortly after his son’s death due to a motorcycle accident. Leukemia is another kind of cancer that prosecutors say was caused because the mother didn’t give the maintenance chemotherapy for his non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

After reviewing only news articles – not medical charts, or other evidence, it is my nursing / medical-legal consultant opinion that this mother did not attempt to murder her son. Of special note, no mention of referrals to support groups for this overburdened mother was made. Neither was there any reference to recommendation of counseling to help her deal with her special needs child, who also had cancer.

Margaret L. Turley RN

4/7/11 Correction of Error above:

What’s the difference between Hodgkin’s disease and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma?

Answer

from Ruben A. Mesa, M.D.

Both Hodgkin lymphoma (formerly known as Hodgkin’s disease) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (also known as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma) are lymphomas, a type of cancer that originates in a subset of white blood cells called lymphocytes. Lymphocytes are an important part of your immune system. The main difference between Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma is in the specific lymphocyte each involves.

A doctor can tell the difference between Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma by examining the cancer cells under a microscope. If in examining the cells, the doctor detects the presence of a specific type of abnormal cell called a Reed-Sternberg cell, the lymphoma is classified as Hodgkin. If the Reed-Sternberg cell is not present, the lymphoma is classified as non-Hodgkin.

The distinction is important because the treatment for each type can be very different.

During research on secondary cancers the older term Hodgkin’s disease was used in the article and I transposed that error into my article. Please accept my apologies for this unintentional error.