How Katie is doing after radiation was forced upon her
Girl Uninterrupted
How’s Katie doing?
Good question.
Last week I received this message from an HSI member named Duane: “Have you heard any thing more about Katie and how she is doing after the radiation was forced upon her? I feel so sorry for her and her parents having to go through something like that; as if Katie’s condition wasn’t enough to deal with.”
I do have some new information, and – for the most part – it’s good.
Lone star
For those who may have missed 13-year-old Katie Wernecke’s story in previous e-Alerts, here’s a quick recap.
After undergoing several months of chemo treatments for Hodgkin’s disease in early 2005, Katie’s doctor prescribed radiation as a preventive measure. But Katie’s cancer was in remission, so she and her parents declined the treatments to avoid radiation side effects, which include damage to the heart muscle, lungs, spine and thyroid gland, as well as a high risk of breast cancer and hormonal disruption. In addition, the Werneckes wanted to investigate less harmful treatment options.
This was unacceptable to Katie’s doctor who reported the Werneckes to Texas Child Protection Services (CPS). For the unforgivable offense of disagreeing with a physician, Katie was removed from her family and ordered to undergo treatments. Just as all this was happening, Katie’s cancer was found to be active again. At that point her parents agreed to additional chemo treatments, but not radiation.
As I last reported to you in the e-Alert “Wise Child” (12/6/05), Katie was finally returned to her parents in October after months of separation and legal wrangling. The Wernecke’s immediately took their daughter to a Kansas clinic where she began intravenous vitamin C therapy.
New year – new Katie
According to a blog maintained by Katie’s parents, Katie just wants to be a normal kid, so she’s turned down requests for interviews from major news outlets such as ABC and CNN. As a result, we haven’t seen any recent national reports about Katie, and the Wernecke’s blog doesn’t provide a regular source of information. Understandably, they spend much more time caring for their daughter and tending to chores on their ranch than posting daily entries on their blog.
Nevertheless, they’ve found time to post a few comments this year. In January they reported that Katie was still getting intravenous vitamin C therapy three times a week. And a month later, good news: “Complete blood tests and a comprehensive metabolic panel done on Tuesday this week looked good and improved from previous tests.”
But even though the Wernecke’s have been reunited, things are not really back to normal. In a February posting Katie’s father writes: “It is also not safe to paste specific medical information on this blog. We are still being watched and scrutinized and so legally we cannot post this information. I can tell you that Katie is ok and is under the care of two doctors, one who is a radiologist. Katie is doing ok, she attends school daily, and is seen by the community daily.”
The most recent comments were posted just last month and the tone is cheerful: “Katie’s hair has grown out and she is really cute in this short hair style. I have some new pictures to post shortly so you can see for yourself. We are continuing to explore additional treatment options for Katie.”
The new photos weren’t yet available when I prepared this e-Alert, so if you’d like to see the photos when they’re posted, you can find Katie’s blog at prayforkatie.blogspot.com.
I’ll continue to check back as well, and will update you on any new developments.
