Sarah's Last Wish: A Tale of Medical Hubris That Caused a Child to Be Tortured as Her Life Was Ending

Not only are the medical system's treatments often more dangerous than beneficial, they may even be forced upon you.

by Heidi Stevenson

21 April 2011

Your 11-year-old child becomes desperately ill with a swollen tummy, vomiting, fever, and severe pain, so you take her to your GP. He's unable to help, so tells you to take her to the nearest emergency ward. So you take her there, but the doctor ignores her pain, ignores her vomiting, ignores her fever, and diagnoses pregnancy based on her swollen tummy. Under such circumstances, it's obvious that such a diagnosis would be absurd in an adult woman. In an immature girl who hasn't yet experienced menstruation, it's madness.

This was merely the beginning of the trauma suffered by Sarah Westley, her parents, and the rest of their family. In Sarah's Last Wish, Eve Hillary tells the true tale of what happened to a desperately ill girl—her physical and mental abuse, the removal of her parents for trying to help their child, and the useless treatments given to a dying child. It leaves little room for doubt that the doctors involved were more interested in playing god than in helping ease misery.

The doctor ignored obvious symptoms of severe suffering to assume pregnancy in an 11-year-old girl and report parental abuse to the authorities—without a pregnancy test! Then, their GP, who knew very little of the family, as they'd always been healthy and had little need for his services, creatively embellished on what little he knew, claiming that they were religious fanatics and led an "alternative lifestyle". The report and GP's inventions were treated as the truth, resulting in the persecution of the parents and their loss of control over their daughter's fate.

The hospital put off a simple and obviously needed sonogram, which could have quickly determined whether she was pregnant, refusing to trouble themselves over the weekend, in spite of Sarah's obvious misery and deteriorating condition. On Monday, a diagnosis of the real problem, a tumor, was made. It took only a moment. The technician knew as soon as he'd placed the sensor on her abdomen.

Without even an apology, they were sent on their way to another hospital. Sarah was desperately ill by then, obviously in no condition for a long automobile ride, but she wasn't offered an ambulance.

Four hours later, after a terrifying drive in which her parents feared she might die, Sarah was checked into another hospital. And the story became even more grim, with worse treatment than could possibly have been imagined.

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Sarah was forced into the most horrible of cancer treatments for a condition that was known to nearly always be fatal. Her comfort and wishes were never considered. In all likelihood, her life was shortened. Without doubt, she was horrifically traumatized both physically and emotionally, nearly all the rest of her brief life turned into pure misery. Her parents were threatened with inability to even see her and with the theft of their other five children if they tried to impose their will.

Sarah was the victim of a corrupt medical system and a government bureaucracy run amok. She was forced to undergo useless, life shortening, and misery-making chemotherapy. She was forced to undergo removal of her spleen without need. Her parents were threatened and their finances destroyed by trying to protect their daughter from this madness. Sarah was even prevented from seeing her parents, brother and sisters, other family, and friends, so she suffered incomparable loneliness during her fearsome ordeal.

Along with their suffering, a legitimate, sincere, and effective alternative treatment center was driven out of existence. Their crime? Delivering caring, humane, and effective treatment to a dying girl—and, of course, exposing the cancer at the heart of modern medicine.

An International Issue

America, Land of the Free?

While this true story took place in Australia, it could have happened in any modern nation. Consider Maryanne Godboldo of Detroit, Michigan, whose daughter was recently stolen at gunpoint to force drugging her with highly toxic antipsychotics, which had been making her condition worse.

Her mother had even been advised by a different doctor to take her daughter off those drugs, and she had been doing much better with alternative natural treatment. Yet, in their hubris, the misnamed Child Protective Services (CPS) ordered Maryanne to give the psychotropic drugs or surrender her child to them.

Without a warrant, and contrary to law and the constitution, a SWAT-style team went to Ms. Godboldo's home and ordered her to surrender her daughter. She attempted to protect herself and her daughter from the attack by firing a warning shot. In the end, she was arrested and her daughter taken.

Since then, her daughter has been found to be infected with a sexually transmitted disease. It's believed that she was assaulted while in custody. Nonetheless, she remains in custody, and her mother has lost all ability to care for her daughter.

England, Home of Democracy for All the People?

Councils, the local governing agencies in England, are removing children from their homes if they are fat! They have decided that social services should "treat" such children, and that parents have no right to be involved in treatment decisions.

In a country where obese children are often given gastric bypass surgery, which is harmful to their development, will they be forced to have surgery, like poor Sarah? They aren't focusing on the primary causes of obesity, such as high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in drinks and foods, or the advertising that's aimed at children to encourage them to eat non-nutritious foods. Instead, they're calling parents abusive.

More of Sarah's Story

Sarah showing her surgical wound, huge incision from sternum nearly to public area

Sarah, shortly after the forced removal of her healthy spleen

Sarah's parents were lied to—over and over again. They were told their daughter's cancer had a high chance of cure through the chemotherapy. The truth was that there was virtually no record of treatment success. Within the confines of modern medicine, her case was hopeless, and the best possible care would have been to make her as comfortable as possible and support her loving family in providing it. In fact, that is considered the default standard of care in such conditions. Instead, the exact opposite was done.

A child very close to her family was ripped from them. She was forced to undergo treatments that can only be described as torture. Obvious signs of a severe and life-threatening allergic reaction occurred—and were ignored. That she survived it is astounding. She was forced to undergo removal of her spleen, and her parents were told it was necessary. Even the surgeon who was ordered to remove it was told that there was no option. Yet, there proved to be absolutely no reason for its removal. Take a look at the photo to the right to see the extent of this useless surgery.

As bad as it was to this point, Sarah's trials became even worse after the splenectomy.

Attempts to stop their daughter's torture included relying on a government-provided counsel, whose fee was 5,000 Australian dollars a day. That counsel did nothing for them, appearing to actually support the government's actions in taking their daughter and forcing medical treatment.

In the end, they were forced to defy the aims of the doctors by secretly flying Sarah to another Australian state. There, she was treated well, given medication to ease her pain, and allowed to die in peace at a friend's home, surrounded by her family. The state's persecution prevented her wish to die at her own home with family, friends, pets, and her own familiar surroundings. Sarah's stated wish, to be able to return to her family home and be left in peace, was crassly ignored.

It Can Happen to Anyone Anywhere

Equivalent experiences have happened to many others in New South Wales, Australia. The children's care division of that state's government is completely out of control and apparently mad with power. They routinely take children away from parents for little, and even invented, reasons. Even the police have grown wary of them. But this isn't going on in only a single state of Australia.

Forced medical treatments, especially the most invasive and dangerous sorts, are happening everywhere:

Elizabeth Ellis, age 67, of Minnesota has been forced by a court to have electroshock therapy. She had also been forced to stay in a mental hospital because her daughter believed that her behavior during her sister's death in a hospital was abnormal, and apparently, the doctors agreed. She has been suffering from memory loss, a common effect of electroshock so-called therapy.
In the UK, a 55-year-old woman was forced to have cancer surgery. At the behest of a social services agency, a court ordered that her desires in the matter were irrelevant. Although the woman has unstated learning disabilities, she was quite clear about not wanting the surgery. Of course, we must assume that she'll also be forced to undergo whatever torturous treatments the doctors, in their hubris, deem appropriate.

The judge was so self-righteous about the decision that he made a point of making it public so that others "who may be faced with a similar dilemma" would be helped by it.
A 14-year-old Canadian girl was forced to undergo a blood transfusion, in spite of signing a statement clarifying that she did not want it and her parents' support of her wish. Four years later at the age of 18, the court ruled that, though she was still of the opinion that she didn't want to undergo that procedure, the decision to force it on her was correct.

She told the court:
There almost are no words to say just how brutal of an act [blood transfusion] is. I once compared it to almost being raped. There are no options for you, there's nothing you can do about it and it's very hard to deal with.
Apparently, the fact that her feelings about the situation were the same after she became a legal adult doesn't matter. At the age of 18, a court ruled that forcing that blood transfusion was perfectly fine. If the doctors want to do a procedure, then the patient's desires are deemed irrelevant.
Florida forced Samantha Burton to be hospitalized for her pregnancy complications. She had willing gone to a hospital because of apparent signs of premature labor 25 weeks into the pregnancy. After a few days, her situation was stabilized and she was unhappy with the hospital, so she wanted to leave. Her obstetrician barred her from going. She was forced to argue the case from her hospital bed and was denied a second medical opinion.

A caesarian was done three days into her forced commitment to the hospital. The fetus was dead. Even then, her attorney found it necessary to go to court to gain Ms. Burton's release from the hospital.

These are cases that have made it to the news media. Most do not. Had it not been for her father's activism, which included a great deal of risk for Sarah's family, her story might not have been told. He is now involved with supporting other families that are going through similar experiences.

What Happened to Sarah Is Not Unusual.

The hubris of some doctors is without bounds. They presume that they know best—in a field that is constantly changing, that uses drugs with life-destroying adverse effects, surgeries that often have disastrous results, and a constantly growing history of procedures found to do more harm than good. Their misbegotten overconfidence makes them believe they've the right to force their treatments on people. The desires of them and their families are treated as irrelevant.

The hubris of social services and legal systems that act based solely on what the presiding doctors want to do—often in the face of other doctors who consider such treatment to be abhorrent or harmful—knows no bounds. They act as the strongmen, using whatever tactics they choose—including threats, bleeding families of their financial resources, and force—to impose the will of the doctors.

Sarah's Last Wish was that no other child should suffer like she did. Sadly, that has yet to be the case. However, this book by Eve Hillary may act as the clarion call to stop the abuse of power by doctors and their legal cohorts, social services and law enforcement.

Sarah's Last Wish is a compelling read. In spite of the sad tale, it's a page turner. You need to know just how far doctors are willing to go to get their way, even in a case like this when there was no legitimate possibility that the suffering they imposed could save her life. The legal power that supports such grievous treatment needs to be ended. Until it is, our lives are all at risk. If you suffer from a life-ending illness, will you be forced to undergo useless treatment that causes suffering? Or will you be free to choose a comfortable and dignified death? Will you or someone you love be forced to allow doctors to take over your body and do to it what they will?

Just remember that the ones left with your body when the doctors are through with it will be you or your family, not them.

Sarah's parents, her brother, and 3 of her 4 sisters

The author, Eve Hillary, was personally familiar with Sarah's story. It was her integrative medicine clinic that was put out of business as a result of providing palliative care. Her practice was able to provide care that greatly improved Sarah's well-being and comfort—but her doctors denied it to her.