Cancer-stricken girl wanted to end chemo, mother says
HAMILTON, Ont. — The mother of a cancer-stricken aboriginal girl who died after abandoning chemotherapy said Thursday that her daughter travelled to a controversial Florida clinic for “nutritional counselling,” not medical treatment.
Makayla Sault, of Ontario’s New Credit First Nation, was diagnosed with lymphoblastic leukemia in January 2014. At a symposium on First Nations health care in Hamilton on Thursday, her mother said that when Makayla was diagnosed, doctors gave her a 72 per cent chance of surviving if she underwent a full course of chemotherapy. However, after 11 weeks, Makayla pulled out of the treatment, sparking a legal and cultural battle that only ended when the 11-year-old died last month following a stroke.
Sonya Sault earlier defended the decisions that preceded her daughter’s death, including the family’s choice to travel last summer to the Hippocrates Institute in Florida. The Florida health department recently fined the head of that scandal-plagued clinic for practising medicine without a licence. But Sault said her daughter received no treatment at Hippocrates, describing the trip instead as a “private family vacation.”
“At Hippocrates we and Makayla received nutritional counselling and she rested in the sun and swam in the ocean,” Sault said.
“The point of going to Hippocrates was to let her relax and to learn to eat well. This was meant to strengthen her immune system and to help recover from chemotherapy.”
Sault’s speech came after the mother of another First Nations’ girl, also suffering from cancer, addressed the crowd. J.J., who can’t be identified because of a court-ordered publication ban, sat next to her mother throughout the talk.
Like Makayla, J.J. was diagnosed with leukemia last year. She too quit chemotherapy at Hamilton’s McMaster Children’s Hospital after only a few weeks, opting instead for a regimen that mixes Western and traditional medicine with treatment from Hippocrates.
J.J.’s mother has in the past defended the treatment her 11-year-old daughter received at Hippocrates, which reportedly included vitamins and a strict vegan diet. But on Thursday, she read only a brief, vague statement, which she said was “carefully crafted so that I don’t get myself into any trouble.”
J.J., she said, was “raised in a traditional Mohawk family” that believes in “holistic” health care and “traditional” medicines.
“The family and the government of Ontario are continuing to discuss the most respectful ways to provide for J.J’s health care,” she said, after promising to tell her whole story when “the threat of legal action has ended.”
Sault spoke at much greater length, outlining the treatment her daughter received after abandoning the chemotherapy. Makayla, she said, received regular care from her family physician and from an oncologist at McMaster as well as from a “traditional” healer.
Chemotherapy, she said, “took a horrific toll on Makayla.” She suffered blood infections and became so ill she couldn’t hold down food or liquids “for days or weeks at a time.” Eventually, she said, Makayla became convinced the chemotherapy itself was killing her.
“She said she wanted to try traditional medicine instead,” Sault said. “Her words to us were ‘I don’t care if I’m going to die, I don’t want to die weak and sick in a hospital.’”
After initially improving, Makayla took a turn for the worse last fall. She died in January after suffering a stroke. Her family, though, blamed her death not on cancer, but on the side effects from the chemotherapy.