Judiciary intervened to prevent alternative treatment.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: A 17-year-old Connecticut girl who was forced to undergo chemotherapy for her cancer has concluded her mandated treatment and is expected to be released Monday, she told the Associated Press
The teenager, identified only as Cassandra C, said: “I’m at a loss for words with how happy I am that I’m finally coming home,” she said. “This day seemed like it would never come. I can finally start putting my life back together, and I look forward to spending time with my mom, friends and heading back to school/work.”
Doctors say her Hodgkin lymphoma, diagnosed in September, is in remission, according to NBC News.
Cassandra’s mother, Jackie Fortin, said they wanted to seek alternative treatment that didn’t include putting the “poison” of chemotherapy into her daughter’s body.
“She doesn’t want toxins in her body,” Fortin told CBS New York in January. “She does not want people telling her what to do with her body and how to treat it.” The toxins are “killing her body. They’re killing her organs. They’re killing her insides,” Fortin added.
However, after Cassandra and her mother missed several doctor’s appointments, a Juvenile Court judge had her forcibly removed her from her home and ordered her to undergo the chemo. When the case eventually went to the state Supreme Court in January, it ruled the state of Connecticut was not violating Cassandra’s rights.
The case pivoted on whether Cassandra was mature enough to determine how to treat her cancer. Connecticut’s high court found that Cassandra, who ran away during a home visit in November, had demonstrated she did not have the maturity to make her own medical decisions. She will be free to make her own medical decisions when she turns 18 in September.
Cassandra has been confined to the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford, where she underwent six rounds of treatment that doctors say will give her an 85 percent chance of survival, reported the AP.