Comment: Katie Wernecke - what's more important, your child's health or a bible drill competition?

Having been treated myself for Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma, the tragic story of little Katie Wernecke, caught my interest.

Sadly, latest tests show she is no longer in remission. Her parents have decided to drop their objections to radiation treatment.

Thankfully, state juvenile court Judge, Carl Lewis, has ordered she remain in state custody while the treatment gets under way.

Katie's family have set up a blog Pray For Katie.

The blog reveals a number of curious statements and concerns. Let's look at a few of the issues in this case, in conjunction with entries in the blog.

Religion not an issue

June 11 - widely quoted in the press
"The couple, members of the Church of God, have said they oppose blood transfusions unless they were from Katie's mother. But Horne (their attorney) has said religion wasn't at issue in the fight over cancer treatment".

April 07 - Father About Katie's doctor. "He also knew we were religiously opposed to a blood transfusion. (We are not Jehovah Witnesses but it is Biblical.)"

June 1 - In an unsigned post by one of the parents
In reference to Dr Alter, Katie's doctor at the hospital. "Call him and tell him you don't like what he did and God will punish him for it. He doesn't believe in the power of God and prayer."

"While you are calling Drisoll Childrens Hospital......voice your disapproval of Dr. Alter's treatment of Katie and involving CPS with this fine christian family. There motto is 'Hope and Healing for 50 years'. Katie's hope and healing is in jeopardy. She is healing just fine on her own with God's help

The introduction to her blog has the following statement,"The Power of Prayer is Awesome". There are other similar statements

April 27 - In an unsigned post by one of the parents
"...to me that says there is no active cancer and the tumor is liquidifing. They said this is not normal or 'atypical' for lymphoma unless the mass is entirely decomposing or dead. They don't understand it! For us we know that it was the prayers and the power of God!"

Note the use of bold font for the last statement.

Bible over health

Friday, March 18, 2005 - Father
"She was feeling sick and weak. She was running a fever. Her white blood cell and platelet counts were very low. She was admitted to the hospital for aplatelet transfusion and for an infection. Any infection at this stage couldbe life threatening".

Yet shortly after, he not only wanted her to attend a Bible Drill competition in April, he complains she did not win.

Thursday, April 07, 2005 - Father
"Katie was put back in the hospital after her last chemo because her blood counts were too low. She needed platelets and a blood transfusion according to the doctor. My wife and I had asked the doctor to postpone her last chemo for one week so Katie could get stronger and so she could attend her Bible Drill competition in Houston.

She still went to the Bible Drill competition in Houston after chemo but was not strong enough to perform at her best and she did not win to go on to state".

Notice he doesn't proudly say, "She gave it her best shot, and considering her condition, she did great, I am really proud of her".

No, he states that she did not perform at her best, she did not win, and would go no further. Nothing like a bit of moral support from dad is there!

In the same post - Father
"The doctor and social worker also did not help things by not giving Katie a positive attitude and a will and desire to go on and compete in her Bible Drill and softball. They said 'there is always next year'.

I would have thought that telling her there would be a "next year" was very positive. Far more positive than complaining she didn't win a Bible Drill competition.

Grades over health

May 26 - Father
"I am proud to say that Katie had the highest grade point average in the 7th grade class at Banquete Jr. High. She missed almost all of the entire second half of the year of school and received only 4 hours of instruction a week by home bound teacher Terrie Whitley. That is quite an accomplishment!

She did get to attend some half days the last two weeks of school. She is very smart and very self disciplined to get all that homework done between clinic visits and extended hospital stays. And we want to keep her that way".

Considering her condition and a series of unpleasant operations detailed in the blog, I wouldn't give a toss about her grades if she were my child.

Odd statements

Jan 07 - Katie
"There are so many kids, some as young as 2 and 5 years old with cancer on this floor. It is sad. All I can do is ask why? It shouldn't be that way. Someone needs to research why kids like us are getting cancer. I lead a healthy life in the country. Is it due to childhood vaccinations?"

An interesting question from a 12 year old.

January 22 - Katie
"My hair started to fall out on the 22nd. First a few strands in my brush and on my sweater, then by handfuls. I couldn't stand it any longer so I took a scissor and cut the rest of it off. Then I took a hair clipper and cut it at the scalp. In a few more days the remaining hair on my head fell out and I was slick as a cue ball".

If you notice, this post was made on Jan 22, the same day her hair started falling out. Yet she mentions her remaining hair falling out a few days later.

She doesn't want to know all the details or what doctors have to say.

Jan 23 - Father
"she doesn't want to know all the details or what doctors have to say."

April 7 - Father
She didn't want to be informed of what was going to happen in the future and all the possible side effects

Yet, posts by "Katie" describe her treatment in detail. For example.

Jan 22 - Katie
"I had my first Chemo in the hospital on Jan 15, 16, 17, and 18th and then went back to the clinic for my final injections on the 21st. I receive six chemo drugs. They are Doxorubicin, Bleomycin, Vincristine, Etoposide, Prednisone, and Cyclophosphamide. Five of them are given with an IV solution put into my Chemo port".

Jan 22 - Katie
"The chemo causes lots of problems including nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, aches and pains inside the bones and joints, constipation, decrease in the number of red and white blood cells and platelets made in the bone marrow, with reduced immunity to disease and infection, and hair loss".

Feb 25 - Katie
"I went in for a PET scan. Now that wasn't for my dog. A PET scan is a 3-dimensional Positron Emission Tomagraphy hence the name PET scan. A tumor or cancer takes up sugar rapidly, it just loves it and feeds on it. So they injected me with a radioactive sugar of 6mCi of Fluorine-18 Deoxyglucose which they call FDG. The stuff is so radioactive they have to keep it in a lead box and shield it with lead blocks the size of bricks".

Real Agenda?

April 7 - Father
"The chemo treatments are barbaric, consisting of deadly chemicals that were even banned from war, and work on the premise that cancer is a fast growing cell and if you can kill all the fast growing cells in the body you can kill the cancer, if you don't end up killing the patient too or dying from a secondary infection ( then you didn't die from the cancer)".

June 1 - In an unsigned post by one of the parents
"They are doing research on our kids. Collecting research money from the drug companies I guess".

Katie will now get the treatment she needs. And thank God, the judge has said that the parents would be allowed to attend the treatments, but that doctors would make the decisions.