http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/341458_leukemia29.html
Boy's death ends battle Because of his religion, leukemia patient Dennis Lindberg, 14, didn't want vital transfusions; his biological parents did. A judge sided with the son, who died last night.
By CHERIE BLACK P-I REPORTER
His life began under trying circumstances. Now, at the age of 14, his life has ended the same way.
For Dennis Lindberg, most of his childhood depended on the kindness of strangers to help him survive. A few weeks ago, he made a decision that contributed to his death Wednesday night.
The Mount Vernon teenager was diagnosed with leukemia Nov. 8 and since then had been confined to Seattle's Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center.
Doctors said he needed blood transfusions to survive potentially lifesaving cancer treatments. But as a practicing Jehovah's Witness, Lindberg refused. Despite his age, he had been declared what is known as a "mature minor," meaning he was considered mature enough to make decisions about his treatment.
Jehovah's Witnesses believe accepting a blood transfusion violates God's law.
His aunt, Dianna Mincin, became his legal guardian four years ago after his father, now a recovering addict, was jailed for drug possession.
Mincin is also a Jehovah's Witness, and supported Dennis' decision.
The boy's biological parents did not.
Dennis Lindberg Sr. -- Mincin's brother -- and Rachel Wherry flew to Seattle from their home in Boise on Tuesday to attend a 9 a.m. hearing, hoping a judge could force the transfusions.
Wednesday morning, after hearing from the parents, the aunt, social workers and the boy's doctor, Skagit County Superior Court Judge John Meyer denied the plea. About 9 p.m., Lindberg Sr. called the Seattle P-I to say his son had died in his hospital bed.
With the transfusions and other treatment, Lindberg had been given a 70 percent chance of surviving the next five years, Meyer said in court, based on what the boy's doctors told him. Without them, he was likely to die. But his decision in what the judge called a "stunning case, which brings into play issues including, but not confined to, religious freedoms," was based strictly on facts.
"I don't believe Dennis' decision is the result of any coercion. He is mature and understands the consequences of his decision," Meyer said during Wednesday's court proceedings.
"I don't think Dennis is trying to commit suicide. This isn't something Dennis just came upon, and he believes with the transfusion he would be unclean and unworthy."
Parents and classmates of the boy, who had lived with his aunt for the past four years, cried in disbelief at the judge's decision. Wherry fled the courtroom in tears.
Mincin has repeatedly declined to speak about her nephew's ordeal. For legal privacy reasons, doctors and officials at Children's also have declined to speak about the boy's condition.
On a CaringBridge Web site that has now been deactivated, Mincin's final journal entry, dated Nov. 22, spoke to those who questioned the decision not to accept blood transfusions. She said that after her nephew made his decision, he "relaxed in a way that he has not relaxed since being admitted (to the hospital.) He is at peace."
"For those reading (about) this journey our family has been on that are not one of Jehovah's Witnesses, we compassionately understand your confusion and, perhaps, even your anger at the decision that Dennis and his family have made," Mincin wrote. "We understand that this is an amazing bright young man who has before him 70, maybe 80 years to contribute to this world. While we empathize with your strong feelings, we ask that you attempt to respect Dennis' fight for what he and his family believe so strongly in."
The decision was the final chapter in what has been a lifelong family drama for Lindberg. It is a saga that began when he was a baby born to parents addicted to methamphetamine.
"I was always too scared to ask my mom if she did drugs," Lindberg wrote in a school essay two years ago about his childhood that was featured in the Skagit Valley Herald.
"I saw a needle in a toilet once, but it didn't mean anything to me. I knew my mom had low blood pressure, was always pale and had extremely small pinhead pupils. For me, this was just normal."
The boy's life was spent constantly moving and he was often left with neighbors for days while his parents were getting high, he told the Herald. He didn't go to school and couldn't read. He spent his summers in Mount Vernon with Mincin, who eventually became his guardian after Lindberg Sr. was jailed for drug possession.
Both parents say they have completed drug treatment programs and are sober. They last saw their son in September when he and Mincin visited Boise.
Since his diagnosis, though, access to information about their son's condition has been restricted. Their only updates had been through the now-defunct Web site profile, which is how they learned about the blood transfusion debate. They contacted Child Protective Services, who appointed a lawyer to each of them and paid to fly the couple to Seattle Tuesday to attend the first hearing.
"My feelings have run the gamut from anger to tears not knowing who to believe and not to believe," said Lindberg Sr. "My sister has done a good job of raising him for the past four years, but her religious beliefs shouldn't be imposed on my son."
He said not having his son for the past four years weighs heavily on him. He said they gave the boy to his sister so he didn't suffer while they were getting their lives back on track.
"The decision would have been different had he been with us," he said. "He'd live through this treatment had we not made the decisions we made."
Lindberg Sr. said his son was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia, a cancer of the bone marrow that is the most common in children. Most children with this type of leukemia are cured after treatment, which can include blood transfusions, according to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
Dr. Douglas Diekema, an ethicist at Children's and director of education at the Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics, said the question was whether a 14-year-old really had the maturity to make medical and religious decisions on his own.
"In my mind, if there is a role of the court it would be to test a 14-year-old and see just how intense he is about his decision," said Diekema. "My approach would be to push it a little further. If he fights you physically, then I'd respect that. But also, are you willing to tie him down every time he needs a transfusion knowing he'll need treatment for the next three years? You'll have a hard time finding a provider willing to do that."
Lindberg Sr. said Wednesday's ruling shocked him, but after visiting his son later in the day, he decided not to appeal the judge's decision.
He said doctors told him earlier Wednesday evening that the teenager, who had been unconscious since Tuesday, likely had suffered brain damage. After learning of his son's death, the father did not want to comment further.
"We'll stay in town until the funeral," he said, "then we'll go back to Boise."
― Mackro Mackro, Thursday, 29 November 2007 08:31 (eighteen years ago)
Religion: dud.
― libcrypt, Thursday, 29 November 2007 11:41 (eighteen years ago)
Pour one out
― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 29 November 2007 11:44 (eighteen years ago)
They prohibit that as well.
― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 29 November 2007 11:45 (eighteen years ago)
Y'know, Onan and all that.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7078673.stm
Not just in America. probably mentioned on another thread somewhere.
― Upt0eleven, Thursday, 29 November 2007 11:47 (eighteen years ago)
If "spilling seed" is to NV a "pour", then I standsit in awe of his mighty manhood.
― libcrypt, Thursday, 29 November 2007 11:48 (eighteen years ago)
Who'd've thought somebody would die over their religious beliefs, eh?
― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 29 November 2007 11:48 (eighteen years ago)
xpost
I got these magic pills what a nice man e-mailed me about.
this is really horribly sad... though i do believe ppl have the right to refuse treatment if they want to, it's their body. what's worse to me is when parents try and prevent their kids from getting transfusions etc.
― s1ocki, Thursday, 29 November 2007 13:54 (eighteen years ago)
Dr. Douglas Diekema is an enormous douche.
R.I.P. Dennis.
― Casuistry, Thursday, 29 November 2007 16:42 (eighteen years ago)
There are a lot of troubling issues here, but I think the main one here is this death involving a 14 year old kid.
― Mackro Mackro, Thursday, 29 November 2007 17:06 (eighteen years ago)
Leukemia would have killed him anyway.
― sexyDancer, Thursday, 29 November 2007 17:12 (eighteen years ago)
The only reason this one seems surprising is that the 14-year-old had actually gotten adult rights to make his own medical decisions. (This makes it far less depressing, so far as I'm concerned -- it's the cases where parents are declining treatment for kids in their care that get disturbing.)
― nabisco, Thursday, 29 November 2007 17:53 (eighteen years ago)
seems depressing from the start when he had addict parents who couldn't take care of him.
― ken c, Thursday, 29 November 2007 17:57 (eighteen years ago)
srsly, my guess would have been that this happens somewhere weekly.
Interesting story, though -- young kid, rotten-ass parental units, taken under wing by a kinda strange religion, and of course he is receptive. Then he is a "believer" to the point that he's willing to die for a sketchy reading of an obscure scripture. He will be held up as an example of faith and courage in the Watchtower magazine for a lot of years to come.
― kenan, Thursday, 29 November 2007 18:06 (eighteen years ago)
Pretty sure they downplay the "you might have to die needlessly" angle in their front-facing literature
― nabisco, Thursday, 29 November 2007 18:16 (eighteen years ago)
Oh quite the opposite... this is the religion that promises a paradise garden here on earth where everyone will live forever.
― kenan, Thursday, 29 November 2007 18:18 (eighteen years ago)
http://www.unc.edu/~elliott/images/Beautiful_Surroundings.jpg
Koalas! Face-shredding maniacs no more!
Ok that's awesome. Sign me up.
― kenan, Thursday, 29 November 2007 18:20 (eighteen years ago)
^^ see, THAT's good prosyletizing, blood-transfusion rules can go in the fine print
― nabisco, Thursday, 29 November 2007 18:21 (eighteen years ago)
they downplay the "you might have to die needlessly" angle
yeah... I just said it was the opposite, but what I meant was that this is correct.
― kenan, Thursday, 29 November 2007 18:22 (eighteen years ago)
"But if I can get serious for a moment, folks, being a Jehovah's Witness isn't ALL koala-snorgling and leaving your doors unlocked. Sometimes you have to turn down blood. You should probably try not to get stabbed."
― nabisco, Thursday, 29 November 2007 18:26 (eighteen years ago)
http://www.unc.edu/~elliott/images/icon.h2.jpg
Something about the way all this artwork is cloyingly oversaturated says all you need to know about this religion.
― kenan, Thursday, 29 November 2007 18:31 (eighteen years ago)
i give props to the jehovah's for taking a hard stance against anything pagan at all... including anything vaguely related to greek thinking that ended up in xtianity. like, uh, heaven. or, the soul.
― gff, Thursday, 29 November 2007 18:32 (eighteen years ago)
upside: Yeah, even though they have a song and dance about resurrection, the stance on death is that it's the end. The dead are aware of nothing, and have no incorporeal lives whatsoever. Wow... that's kinda... practical!
downside: no Christmas?! You've got to be fucking joking.
― kenan, Thursday, 29 November 2007 18:38 (eighteen years ago)
-- sexyDancer, Thursday, 29 November 2007 17:12 (1 hour ago) Link
― Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved, Thursday, 29 November 2007 18:38 (eighteen years ago)
huh, I'm out of the loop... seems that last year the JW's revised their position on blood for the six thousandth time, saying that hemoglobin is ok, but not whole blood. (Oh, I'll just take 99% of the blood, please. The other percent makes God angry for some reason.)
Btw, for a largely protestant religion, this particular rule is over-the-top Old Testament. It's one of those helpful hints in Leviticus:
For it is life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.
Also, wearing clothes of mixed fibers will get you in a shitstorm of trouble with our Very Angry God.
― kenan, Thursday, 29 November 2007 18:50 (eighteen years ago)
Also, WTF YOU MORONS that scripture is very obviously about FOOD PREPARATION!
― kenan, Thursday, 29 November 2007 18:54 (eighteen years ago)
do they have a song/dance about kolal snorgling
― Mr. Que, Thursday, 29 November 2007 18:55 (eighteen years ago)
koala
― Mr. Que, Thursday, 29 November 2007 18:56 (eighteen years ago)
A judge obv wld not treat a 14-year-old woman who wanted an abortion as a "mature minor," but sure, let a 14-year old boy with the world's most tragic cancer essentially kill himself.
― Abbott, Thursday, 29 November 2007 22:46 (eighteen years ago)
Kenan, I have a whole book in which I pasted pics from Watchtower (that's the JW mag they leave all over the laundromats, right?) bcz I thought they were fucking hilarious!
― Abbott, Thursday, 29 November 2007 22:47 (eighteen years ago)
yet another example of the insane amount over-respect for religion.
― dally, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:03 (eighteen years ago)
%70 chance of living another five years? c'mon, the kid was doomed either way
― sexyDancer, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:05 (eighteen years ago)
Oh c'mon: that's not over-respect for religion, that's respect for people's own decision-making and right to live and/or die as they choose without having the state force medical procedures on them against their will
The only thing obscuring that is the fact that we're talking about a minor with the legal authority of an adult, and the fact that his reasons for making the decision he made aren't ones your respect.
― nabisco, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:07 (eighteen years ago)
I think it would be totally great if you guys had kids with leukemia and were like "70% chance? Good luck kid, you're on your own."
― Abbott, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:08 (eighteen years ago)
This is not an argument against affording the kid some dignity in his life choices, it's an argument FOR giving a girl choices in hers.
― Michael White, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:09 (eighteen years ago)
Well, hello, that is exactly what I meant.
― Abbott, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:10 (eighteen years ago)
I think assisted suicide is okay too but like kenan said not when it's based on some poorly-translated OT scripture.
Or DNRs or other things that do allow the dying dignity.
― Abbott, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:11 (eighteen years ago)
Sorry, then. I R dubm.
Abbott, I certainly wouldn't make this choice and i wouldn't want my child to make it, which is a pretty good reason to either steer any of my future progeny away from the JWs or at least explain the difference between 'eating' and 'infusions'.
― Michael White, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:11 (eighteen years ago)
I'm with nabisco - there are way bigger daily tragedies in the world than this y'know
― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:14 (eighteen years ago)
xp It's also a great reason not to go to jail for drug possession and have your children taken away from you, but even considering that, this was sheer human stupidity.
― Laurel, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:14 (eighteen years ago)
Bigger tragedies than being with nabisco? I imagine there are, at that.
― Michael White, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:15 (eighteen years ago)
oh you card
― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:16 (eighteen years ago)
can they eat gravy?
― remy bean, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:17 (eighteen years ago)
I wouldn't go through chemo to maybe extend my life 5 years either, but more for not wanting to bankrupt my loved ones on top of dying anyway. The real tragedy is cancer sucks.
― sexyDancer, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:17 (eighteen years ago)
Is there any way to properly translate Leviticus et. al.? I mean it seems like a hilarious and peculiar historical document that is a very effective soporific, but not like anything vaguely useful or spiritual.
― Abbott, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:18 (eighteen years ago)
http://www.crossingwallstreet.com/archives/BibleCode.png
― sexyDancer, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:20 (eighteen years ago)
Now, maybe I wasn't as mature as Master Lindberg (the Lindberg curse strikes again?) was at 14, but I might have been tempted to piss my parents off like this, too, as I recall.
― Michael White, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:20 (eighteen years ago)
Hahahaha for real, I would have looked at it as a useful escape.
― Abbott, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:21 (eighteen years ago)
-- Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, November 29, 2007 11:14 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Link
classic
― s1ocki, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:26 (eighteen years ago)
there is comfort to be found in nabisco
― Just got offed, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:30 (eighteen years ago)
and did my feet sometime around 2004 walk upon England's mountains green
no they did not but I had some drinks in London and stuff
― nabisco, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:32 (eighteen years ago)
you guys are weird
― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:32 (eighteen years ago)
It's ok
Obviously this rule was more important to him that living any longer.
― Huwa Hu, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:33 (eighteen years ago)
Did you get drunkeded there, Nabisco? Among those dark Satanic mills
― Michael White, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:36 (eighteen years ago)
and will Jerusalem Engaland Among what the fuck and shit
― Abbott, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:37 (eighteen years ago)
^^^new national anthem PLZ
― Just got offed, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:38 (eighteen years ago)
I don't believe in ironic fate but srsly being like so blasé about a child's dying...something's gonna happen to one of yr kids someday and wtf's gonna happen then?
I know there are more tragic things in the world so I suppose no one should ever discuss the less tragic ones, eh?
― Abbott, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:39 (eighteen years ago)
I will incontinence delight And Sodom pour on heathered land Until Jerusalem Engaland I just pooped here in my pants
― Abbott, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:40 (eighteen years ago)
Nor blaspheme down the stations of the breath With any further Elegy of innocence and youth.
― Michael White, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:41 (eighteen years ago)
<epic Keith Emerson solo>
― Abbott, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:42 (eighteen years ago)
Bring me my ball I want my ball back! What are you doing with my balll?
― Just got offed, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:45 (eighteen years ago)
Ba'al?
― Michael White, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:49 (eighteen years ago)
Whoa, you just turned into the little Snitter pit basset, my dog!
― Abbott, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:49 (eighteen years ago)
Dude that is one of the best parts in the OT where God sends giant flame vortex at Ba'al worshipers' temple.
― Abbott, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:50 (eighteen years ago)
well then I will be very sad. I guarantee you I won't be turning to random internet message boards for solace. besides who's being blase? the kid wanted to die and for some (rather strange and inscrutable and probably kinda wrong) reason he was given the legal authority to make that decision and he did. I have personally witnessed WAY worse shit than that. Perspective is important.
― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:50 (eighteen years ago)
Wait, where did I just see something about a Pit Basset?
― Michael White, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:51 (eighteen years ago)
Yr cuet Shakey Mo.
― Abbott, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:52 (eighteen years ago)
Apparently my despair at losing my ball places me on a similar behavioural level to Abbott's domestic pet, which is probably a fair call.
is Ba'al another way of saying Belial?
― Just got offed, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:53 (eighteen years ago)
I have serious fears that the parents will relapse big time.
― Michael White, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:54 (eighteen years ago)
http://s45.photobucket.com/albums/f86/igotabeefpastry/?action=view¤t=peeing.jpg
I have witnessed way more worsier shit that this too, but that doesn't mean I can't be frustrated with the modern world, or sad that people are like "fuck kid only had a 30% of living why's anyone getting upset here." I'm probably too sensitive for my own good, crying at TV commercials from time to time and kids books and all manner of things, but it still hurts me, this whole thing.
― Abbott, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:55 (eighteen years ago)
― Abbott, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:56 (eighteen years ago)
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f86/igotabeefpastry/peeing.jpg
― Abbott, Thursday, 29 November 2007 23:57 (eighteen years ago)
"fuck kid only had a 30% of living why's anyone getting upset here."
well I do think that's kind of callous and I didn't say that (neither did nabisco) - but you have to respect people's wishes, and why should his meth-head parents have any say in his life anyway? They sound like completely irresponsible fuckups. That being the case, if this is how he wanted to go out, hey at least he's not hurting anybody else and is dying as he wished, in accordance with his beliefs. Just cuz I think its a weird belief (lolz Leviticus) doesn't make it any less valid. I think the key thing for me is that no one's being victimized here - no one's forcing their will on another, no one's hurting somebody else - and its cases where those kinds of things are happening that are infinitely sadder. to me, anyway.
― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 30 November 2007 00:00 (eighteen years ago)
I know you didn't say that, I'm probably overreacting here. I'm just v sensitive abt religion I guess and that this young kid just has such a shit life, without it or with it. Also sensitive abt leukemia in particular so, this is just upsetting me, but you do have a sane & accurate position on it. Sorry if I seemed curt to you.
― Abbott, Friday, 30 November 2007 00:02 (eighteen years ago)
seemed = was
― Abbott, Friday, 30 November 2007 00:03 (eighteen years ago)
no worries! http://4tenderheart.com/HUGS_001.JPG
― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 30 November 2007 00:07 (eighteen years ago)
nothin cheerier than loveable fat kids
― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 30 November 2007 00:08 (eighteen years ago)
Dude Dolly's got a huge ass!
― Abbott, Friday, 30 November 2007 00:09 (eighteen years ago)
I think everybody in Family Circus eats like 10 hamburgers a day
― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 30 November 2007 00:09 (eighteen years ago)
Not-Me!
― Abbott, Friday, 30 November 2007 00:10 (eighteen years ago)
I'm with Nabisco - this kid was begging for it
― jeff, Friday, 30 November 2007 00:12 (eighteen years ago)
<i>A judge obv wld not treat a 14-year-old woman who wanted an abortion as a "mature minor," but sure, let a 14-year old boy with the world's most tragic cancer essentially kill himself.</i>
Mature minor rulings are not that difficult to get in my home state, for example if you are a girl wanting an abortion. Girl in my school did so in 1983 when 15. She will not be the first or the last - v. liberal state then and now.
JWs, Christian Scientists and 7DAs to some degree or other think transfusion = transgression. My grandmother nearly died of rheumatic fever because her mum was a Christian Scientist. My grandfather was a JW for 15 years and went into it when vulnerable. When these beliefs implicates in long-term cancer treatment and guardians or patients go all faith-numpty and listen to 'God' and not their oncologists, the former cancer patient in me wonders if they're self-cullers for this year's Darwin Report.
― suzy, Friday, 30 November 2007 11:50 (eighteen years ago)
uhh, 'implicate'...
This is a harsh deliniation I know, but I am angry about these stories in C21 and so I should be.
― suzy, Friday, 30 November 2007 11:52 (eighteen years ago)
14-year-old woman who wanted an abortion as a "mature minor," but sure, let a 14-year old boy
I see what you did there.
― onimo, Friday, 30 November 2007 12:46 (eighteen years ago)
it's his body, and he can do what he wants with it, etc.
fuck adults who influence kids like this.
― darraghmac, Friday, 30 November 2007 12:58 (eighteen years ago)