Across the nation, CPS forces chemo on cancer-free children

Eliyahu Tulshinski

November 20, 2023

A central Texas family was stuck in Minnesota for almost a year when a Christmas vacation turned into a medical and legal nightmare. Their difficulties began when they brought their four-year-old son Keaton to Children’s Minnesota's emergency room for vomiting, rash, sleepiness, and face swelling.

From “thankful” for hospital care to being reported by the hospital

Just an hour after arrival, Keaton was diagnosed with leukemia and two days later he was put on chemotherapy, for which his stunned mother, McKena Peck, initially praised the hospital just as they started the treatment, not yet knowing whether it would be effective or to what extent her son would suffer side effects.

About an hour later he was diagnosed with Leukemia . . . He has also started Chemotherapy Sunday through his spinal fluid which is something I’ve never thought I would have to put in my 4 year olds body….But I am thankful we ended up in Minnesota for Christmas close to the best cancer Hospital in America.

Just four months later, Peck learned that her son was cancer-free according to a new test. Leukemia, being a condition of the blood, does not entail the growth of a tumor. Instead, the disease is generally diagnosed based on abnormal blood cell counts.

Keaton's doctors knew that Keaton's cell counts were at normal levels. They also knew that chemotherapy treatments for leukemia, like Etoposide, can actually cause new cancers.

Peck, who had witnessed the devastation to Keaton's body that the chemotherapy caused, declined additional chemo. The hospital promptly informed her that it wasn't her decision to make, though, insisting on another two to five years of chemo as a “preventative” measure.

When Peck insisted on switching to natural remedies to prevent recurrence, the hospital reported her to Child Protective Services (CPS), according to local Waco, Texas station KWTX:

Peck says that she prefers to use natural remedies instead, especially after seeing how the chemo impacted her son.

“There’s been several times he’s told me he wants to go to bed and never wake up,” McKena Peck, Keaton’s mother, said. “He’s been going through treatments since December, so he’s been poked hundreds of times and it just never stops.” . . .

After refusing the hospital’s recommendations, Children’s Minnesota reported the couple to child protection services . . . [Emphasis added].

Judge sides with CPS

Children’s Minnesota sent an oncologist to court to testify against Keaton's parents and succeeded in having them declared guilty of medical neglect and stripped of medical custody.

“The parents have been court ordered that they can be present at the hospital, but they can’t interfere with medical decisions or treatment in any way,” Christina Zauhar, the Peck and Verm family’s attorney, told KWTX.

Most recently, their case went to trial in June, but the judge ruled in favor of keeping all medical decisions with Wright County.

“The judge ruled that Keaton is, in fact, in need of child protection services because he is medically neglected, is the finding that was made,” Zauhar said. [Emphases added].

According to the Star Tribune, the judge was swayed by the Children’s Minnesota cancer doctor's testimony that Keaton will almost certainly survive with chemo but has a “very bleak chance” if there's a recurrence. Interestingly, the report does not provide the statistical difference in the chance of recurrence with or without chemo, or the difference in survival rates with or without the treatment. Instead, it appears that an absence of treatment was conflated with a return of cancer:

[Judge] Strand in her order said she was persuaded by testimony from the Children's oncologist treating Keaton, indicating a 93% chance of survival through continued chemotherapy but a "very bleak" prognosis if the cancer returns. [Emphases added].

On October 21^st, KWTX aired a video of Peck saying that the court approved her request to move to Oklahoma, where Keaton's father, who is also her fiancée, is stationed for work. While the family is reunited, their appeal against the removal of their medical custody is still pending a decision from the appellate court. In the meantime, she says, Keaton is undergoing mandatory spinal taps and daily chemo. As the case makes its way through the courts, though, Peck is not toning down her criticism of chemotherapy.

New York too

Keaton's case is not unique. The Star Tribune reported that, in Minnesota alone, courts took custody of 31 children in 2021 for allegations of medical neglect.

In Long Island, teen Nick Gundersen was forcibly detained in the cancer ward of NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, New York to facilitate “preventative” chemotherapy back in 2018. Child Protective Services obtained a court order placing the 13-year-old in the hospital with a tracking device attached to his wrist. Nick was guarded by three daily shifts of taxpayer funded security guards for 24-7 “protection” from his mother, Candace, who wanted to end the chemotherapy regimen administered to her already cancer-free child.

This cancer, that cancer, no cancer

The New York Post reported that Nick was first diagnosed in June of that year with one type of leukemia, for which he received chemotherapy. In August he was told the diagnosis was mistaken and that he actually had a different type of leukemia. He then received chemotherapy for that leukemia in September. In October, tests showed that he had no cancer at all.

Under the cover of darkness

When the previously athletic Nick lost his strength along with a fourth of his body weight, his mother sought a second opinion and alternative treatments:

After nearly a month in Cohen’s Children Hospital, [sic] the karate black-belt and Boy Scout was sleeping 18 hour days and had lost 25 percent of his weight, as both the cancer and chemo rocked his body.

He was eventually allowed to transition to outpatient treatment, but during a check-up in late August doctors said they wanted to readmit him.

The only problem was that his mom had since learned that doctors at the hospital had misdiagnosed Nick’s malady. . . . Candace, eager to get a second opinion and treatment at another hospital, refused to readmit Nick and brought him home in early September. [Emphases added].

That break from chemo did not sit well with the administrators at Cohen Children's Medical Center, the initial hospital to treat Nick. They called CPS which arrived at Nick's home at 3 a.m. and brought him back to the hospital to administer forced chemotherapy doses.

Come back (from Florida)

The New York Post report continues Nick's story, with his attempt to switch to “preventative nontoxic therapy” in Florida, after he was cancer free. CPS stopped Nick's plan before it took off:

[Candace] balked [at preventative chemotherapy], opting to again pull her son from the hospital and head to Florida to seek “preventative nontoxic therapy,” Candace said.

They hadn’t been in the Sunshine State long when Candace was contacted by CPS, ordering her to return her son for chemotherapy or face arrest.

Candace begrudgingly complied, but she’s fighting CPS’ court order keeping her frail son in a cancer ward.

“They’re pumping this biohazard into my son’s body. I feel like I’m in a Frankenstein movie,” said the mom. “I should have the right to decide what’s in the best interest of my son now that he is in remission.” [Emphases added].

Nick told the New York Post that he “obviously” did not want the chemo treatments and wanted to be released from his hospital detainment where he wasn’t even allowed visits from friends.

Trust CPS?

Candace added that their trip to Florida for healthcare was pursuant to an agreement with CPS that was even approved by the local court in Long Island. She said CPS reneged on that agreement in forcing her back to New York and that the reneging was consistent with CPS's behavior of “not once” prioritizing her son over their “politics, money, and power.”

I went to court to testify to save Nicholas' life from toxic chemotherapy because the tests show there is no cancer in his body. I took him to a group of docs in Florida in order to pursue a non toxic route for Nick to prevent the cancer from coming back. There was a signed agreement by a Judge in Suffolk County as well as all parties involved.

CPS decided to renege on their agreement and visciously [sic] come after me. They are taking Nick from my care and custody. . . . all the hard work and efforts to . . . find doctors in FL is all going out the window. Plus, everything Nick needs right now to recover from what he has been through is going down the toilet.

CPS has done nothing but continually place Nick in harm's way and stand as obstacles to him getting what he truly needs. They have not once looked out for him or made a decision that was in his best interest. They make decisions based on politics, money, and power. [Emphases added].

Chemo success?

The hospital credited the chemotherapy with the cancer-free result. Such a conclusion is disputed by alternative medicine practitioners like naturopathic physician Peter Glidden. Dr. Glidden has publicized a 12-year meta-analysis published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology which followed cases of adult onset cancers treated with chemotherapy. He says the drugs failed to be effective 97% of the time, but are still heavily pushed because of their unique status as the only prescribed medication offering doctors a cut of the profits:

In the case of early stage breast cancer, for example, survival rates with or without chemotherapy are statistically identical for about 70% of women (i.e., those with intermediate or low scores on a genetic test for the disease):

Additionally, many medications have side effects that include the very thing they are supposed to treat. The American Cancer Society notes that this is true of chemotherapy as well, as cancer itself is a side effect of chemotherapy:

Some types of chemotherapy (chemo) drugs have been linked with different kinds of second cancers. The cancers most often linked to chemo are myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Sometimes, MDS occurs first, then turns into AML. Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) has also been linked to chemo. Chemo is known to be a greater risk factor than radiation therapy in causing leukemia.

The risk gets higher with higher drug doses, longer treatment time, and higher dose-intensity (more drug given over a short period of time). Chemotherapy agents that have an increased risk for second cancers include:

Alkylating agents (mechlorethamine, chlorambucil, cyclophosphamide, melphalan, lomustine, carmustine, busulfan)
Platinum-based drugs (cisplatin, carboplatin)
Anthracycline topoisomerase II inhibitors (etoposide or VP-16, teniposide, mitoxantrone)

Nationwide

Keaton and Nick are far from alone. Many children have been forced to receive chemotherapy, despite parents' concerns of toxicity and/or ineffectiveness of the drugs, including 4-year-old Noah in Florida:

Some claim that children's hospitals are particularly aggressive in reporting parents to CPS for seeking second medical opinions:

See our earlier exposés on CPS