Parents of Perth boy with brain cancer prefer treatment in alternative Asian clinic over chemotherapy

Court battle over chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments for Oshin Kiszko, the 6-year-old Perth boy with brain cancer, has lowered his chances of surviving five years. Doctors at Princess Margaret Hospital initially gave him 50 to 60 percent chances of survival, but delays in the court decision has lowered his chances of survival to 40 percent.

Despite the lower chances, Angela Kiszko, the boy’s mother, who is seeking legal advice on how to prevent Oshin from undergoing the court-mandated chemotherapy for his medulloblastoma, prefers her son to have treatment in an alternative Asian clinic, reports Daily Mail. In pushing for treatments even if the boy’s mother believes Oshin’s brains would be “fried with radiation,” doctors warn Oshin would die within months if he did not undergo therapy.

However, the clinic the family is eyeing has no scientific backing. Despite the odds of a treatment working if the boy undergoes it in Asia, the mother stresses, “The effects [radiation] are too harsh, too damaging, and I find it really difficult to even call it a treatment.”

But Professor Brian Owler, neurosurgeon from the Australian Medical Association, points out that despite the risks that come with chemotherapy, there are children with brain cancer who underwent the treatment and live happy and fulfilled loves. In opposing radiation, Oshin’s mother cites her mother and stepmother who were cancer victims.

“I have watched and learned what all these children and their families go through and it is nothing short of toxic hell … It almost feels like Nazi Germany and I am honestly sickened by the treatment of all these children,” she says.

If Kiszko would not be able to stop the hospitals from implementing the court decision, Oshin would have his fourth round of chemotherapy this week, reports Perth Now. The mother blames the three rounds of the boy’s digestive track ulcers on the three previous chemotherapy sessions.

VIDEO: “I want him to live, not to survive” - Angela