Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Farris discovered something shocking as he prepared to defend Kenneth and Erin Stieler from charges of medical neglect after they disagreed with doctors on the best course of treatment for their 8-year-old son after surgery and chemo had removed all signs of cancer. Mike picks up with the story, on today's Home School Heartbeat.

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Mike Farris:
Ken and Erin Stieler were concerned about the effects of the chemo treatment that the doctors wanted to use on their son, Jacob. Not only had previous treatments taken a toll on Jacob's will to carry on, it seemed to the Stielers that the dangers of the treatment were greater than its benefits. And Jacob had gotten back a completely clean PET scan. No sign of cancer.

I took a closer look at the drugs the doctor wanted to use for Jacob’s chemo. “Have all of these drugs been approved by the FDA as safe and effective for children with this kind of cancer?” I asked this of Jacob’s treating oncologist.

“Yes,” she replied.

But according to the official package inserts that the FDA requires drug companies to give to physicians and patients, she is just flat wrong.

As it turned out, she had never even seen, much less read, these official FDA-required package inserts. Most of the drugs in question did not list Jacob’s form of cancer as an “indicated use.” This means that these drugs had not been tested and validated as safe and effective for this particular kind of cancer—either for adults, or for children.

Jacob’s parents were right in their concern—I believed that at least. Would the court agree? Tune in next time. I’m Mike Farris.