The news that the little boy whose parents were put through hell when trying to organise his treatment has made such good progress and is now cancer free is wonderful. It vindicates the decision by his parents to fight for the treatment in which they had confidence, not because it was more effective than that offered by the notorious Southampton General, but because it has fewer side effects.
The story has, in its good outcome, profound lessons for all authorities who find themselves caught up in a medical dispute with parents of children with serious life threatening conditions. They are these. Doctors know a lot but they do not always know best. If medical hysteria replaces measured judgement and well intentioned discussion is replaced by threats, then the very medical authorities who see themselves as saviours instead unwittingly become heartless killers. I know. My family was stricken by the loss of the life of one of our children because we succumed to the threats issued by a medical grouping of which Southampton General was a part and whose flawed treatment proved needlessly fatal.