Mom Accused of Withholding Cancer Meds

Mass. Woman Charged with Attempted Murder for Preventing Autistic Son from Getting Cancer Treatment

(CBS)  A woman accused of withholding cancer treatment from her autistic son has been charged with attempted murder.

Kristen LaBrie is scheduled to appear in Salem Superior Court on Monday on charges of attempted murder, child endangerment and permitting bodily injury to a disabled person.

LaBrie's son, Jeremy, was 9 when he died in March. He had been diagnosed with leukemia in 2006.

Prosecutors say LaBrie canceled at least a dozen appointments for chemotherapy treatment and did not fill at least half the prescriptions her son had been given.

She had earlier been charged with child endangerment, and a grand jury returned the more serious indictment Friday. She was arrested Sunday night.

[kaszcat]

My son died of leukemia in 2008, there are so many groups out there to help you, you don't have to pay for a thing. Even if I couldn't afford it I would have done what a could to get the meds. My son was at the U of M in Michigan. Some of this meds was over $2000. each. No child is left without treatment. We are a lower income family, and he had the best care anyone could ask for. His first month in the hospital was over $159,000.00.

[rsmik]

How were the cancer treatments being paid? Did the divorce agreement include providing for medical expenses?

[satt1313]

Well said. Typical knee jerk reaction from ill informed morons. Let's blame the dad (the usuall scapegoat))or blame it on our health care system. Most likely just a selfish vengeful woman.

[tmittelstaed]

Both of you are idiots. Do a little research before commenting next time. You want to know where the father was? By his dying son's bedside. Because, the court terminated Kristen's access rights as a result of her not giving her son the medicine.

Eric Fraser and Kristen LaBrie separated in 2000. At that time, she relinquished complete custody of an older son, who is now 16, to Eric, his father. At that time Jeremy had just been born, he went with Kristen.

According to records Eric and Kristen fought with each other with the result that Eric's visitation with his son was sporatic for the next several years.

Eric Fraser and Kristen LaBrie then divorced in 2005, she was given physical custody and Eric had visitation rights every other weekend.
Eric's visits to his son continued to be sporatic, largely due to problems with Kristen. There is no record of Eric ever failing to make the required child support payments.

Jeremy Frasher was then diagnosted with in 2006 and was given a good prognosis. Kristen commenced chemotherapy and the cancer went into remission. By March 2007 Kristen and Eric's relationship was so bad that Eric ceased visiting Jeremy completely until December 2007. In Feb. 2008 Kristen took Jeremy in for an appointment, and the doctors determined from medical records that Kristen had not followed through with the treatments properly, missing numerous appointments, failing to pick up prescription meds, and filed a complaint with DSS. The court then terminated Kristen's rights in April 2008 and Jeremy went with his father - but by then the cancer had come back so strongly that he had no chance of survival.

[toldyouso29]

Or maybe she was really tired of being a parent and caregiver to an autistic child and thought God was answering her prayer for relief and did not want to help the state to undermine that by helping the child to live.

Chemo should always be a choice. Often it does not work but what is guaranteed is the hundreds of thousands in medical bills that are wracked up for cancer treatments--now the treatments appear to be a mandate instead of an option? The real question is that if she was cancelling so many treatments and the hospital was so adamant that she was harming the child, where in the world was Carmen San Diego? er... Child Protection Services? Perhaps they should be renamed Child reaction services since they seem to be in the picture mostly AFTER the harm is done....

[MPHgrad]

I agree. They are nothing more than Child Reactive Services. There are too many incidents where they drop the ball and don't appear until a child is dead or near dead. I also agree that parents should not be forced to give their children medications that have severe side effects.

[akpals]

100% with you on what you said about chemo being a choice. But I don't agree that child protective services should have ever been involved. Jehova's Witnesses came to my door when my own son was going through chemotherapy. They left a large pamphlet for me about why I was wrong in letting the doctors give my son life saving blood transfusions, they don't believe it's right. Why don't the courts interfere when a Jehova witness child dies from blood loss? I know firsthand that it's a really tough decision for any parent to let their child die, I don't think anyone else should interfere with the parent's decision of treatment when it comes to terminal illness.

[brianbwb-2009]

then you must be pro choice, since you insist that it is the parent's right to choose.

Can't have it both ways, you know, either choice is legal, or it isn't.

[SteelersWinAgain]

Maybe the poor woman couldn't afford the copays and deductibles for this experimantal medicine. Maybe she was 'just above or a little bit above' the poverty line for any assistance. If the young man lived until 9 years old even WITH a severe medical condition, where was the father, where was HE? Where? If there are no other signs of abuse, when it comes to medical treatment, the parent(s) should have the right to decide.