Montana Dad Gives Cancer-Stricken Boy Marijuana Behind Doctor's Back.

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http://abcnews.go.com/Health/montan...stricken-toddler-son/story?id=13529490&page=1

Doctors said 2-year-old Cash Hyde would likely die after they found a stage 4 brain tumor surrounding his optic nerve just a year ago this week.

And he nearly did. After being subjected to seven different chemotherapy drugs, the little boy from Missoula, Montana suffered septic shock, a stroke and pulmonary hemorrhaging.

Cash was so sick he went 40 days without eating. His organs were threatening to shut down. His father, Mike Hyde, intervened, slipping cannabis oil into his son's feeding tube.

In Montana, medical marijuana is legal. Hyde had used it himself to treat his attention deficit disorder. When Cash was diagnosed in May 2010, Mike got him a marijuana card and purchased the drug from his own supplier.

Cash, now 3, made a miraculous recovery at Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, but his father's bold action -- taken behind doctors' backs -- has raised serious questions about a parent's role in medical treatment.

Hyde said he believes it was the marijuana oil that helped Cash eat again and that the drug -- illegal in most states, including Utah, can cure cancer.

"Not only was it helpful," Hyde, 27, told ABCNews.com. "It was a godsend."

Dr. Linda Granowetter, a professor of pediatrics at New York University and chief of the Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, told ABCNews.com that Hyde's intervention was "fascinating" but "somewhat bothersome."

Granowetter said she agrees that cannabis -- the chemical form, THC can be found in the prescription drug Marinol -- is effective in treating adult nausea that accompanies chemotherapy. But there have been no clinical trials in children.

"Its virtue is we know exactly what you are getting and how much," she said. "I think that the fact that he didn't have the rapport and ability to be honest with the doctor is very troubling. Care is impeded when there is not complete trust."

Hyde, who quit his job as a car salesman when Cash was diagnosed with cancer, said he was afraid Cash's doctor might take the marijuana away.

"When you are told your kid has cancer, whoa," said Hyde, 27. "Then they tell me they have to do aggressive chemo and he's probably not going to make it. It's a lot to take on."

He had read claims by researchers online about cannabis's properties: "It's one of the best nausea and pain medications on the market," he said.

Because there are no pediatric oncology facilities in rural Montana, where Cash's tumor was discovered in a CT scan at the local emergency room, he was rushed to Salt Lake City, the nearest treatment center.

He was given the highest possible doses of chemotherapy for two months. He lost his appetite and threw up eight to 10 times a day.

"When he started the chemo, he was so sick," said Hyde. "For the first six weeks, he was blind. But his tumor was shrinking… It's the nastiest thing to see someone you love go through this."

Doctors had inserted a gastric feeding tube to administer cancer-fighting drugs and to help with his nutrition, but when August came the family experienced another medical "rollercoaster ride," according to Hyde.

"The G-tube burned out the inside of his stomach," said Hyde. "He didn't even have the will to eat."

By September, Cash had stopped eating for 40 days. "He was suffering terribly, and the doctors said it was the best they could do for him," said Hyde, who asked doctors to stop the chemotherapy drugs.

Instead, Hyde boiled up marijuana he had purchased in Montana with olive oil and measured 3 mm. doses that he poured into his son's G-tube twice a day.

Because it was illegal to use medical marijuana in Utah, Hyde never told his doctors.

"In two weeks he was weaned of all the nausea drugs, and he was eating again and sitting up in and laughing," according to Hyde, who said doctors called his son's recovery "a miracle."

NYU's Granowetter said cannabis "certainly can increase appetite and improve mood...but the idea that it can cure cancer is ludicrous."

She said the drug is most effective in teens who have previously used marijuana. "In young adults or children who have not had it before, it can make them paranoid."

"It's awfully hard to gauge if a child would have a bad reaction," according to Granowetter, who said she would welcome clinical trials on children.

"We know from research that 30 to 60 percent of parents with children are giving them alternative meds like vitamins, shark tooth and herbs from Chinatown," she said. "That's why we spend a lot of time asking parents what else they are giving kids and trying to be non-judgmental and work with them and guide them."

She said most pediatric oncologists are "open-minded" about alternative treatments.

Mike Hyde said he did eventually tell the Utah doctors, who were surprised by how Cash bounced back with no permanent organ damage. They say the boy has a 50 to 80 percent chance that the cancer will come back, according to Hyde, who has since started a foundation to help children with cancer.

"We were told I was one of the best dads," said Hyde, who lived with his wife and their other 6-year-old son in a camper in a parking lot for the nine months of treatment. "Every encounter in Salt Lake City, we were positive and never quit fighting. I was told he was going to die, but I knew he hadn't stopped the fight."
 
Seamaiden

Seamaiden

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I'm sorry, how can Granowatter characterize "most" pediatric oncologists as being open-minded about alternative treatments right after she said that the idea it might be able to cure cancer is "ludicrous?" How's that work, exactly? How does that work when she HAS to know that many doctors, despite the evidence (continuing education, anyone? HELLO!!! <she says thinking pointedly of her own DO) showing otherwise, are still against cannabis? How can she say that when there are still so many doctors who are completely and totally dismissive of the medical properties of cannabis?

I would LOVE to have a long, serious conversation with that woman.

Disturbing when a parent takes on their child's treatment? BULLSHIT. How often has it been the parents who've figured out that their child's health problems were, for instance, diet-related, when the child's doctor didn't have it figured out?

Don't get me wrong, I was raised by a doctor and I have a lot of respect for anyone who can even stick someone else with a needle, who stuck through all those years of education, etcetera. But all too often, perhaps because of that education, they become dismissive of others and other possibilities. That's what puts a hair across my ass. That and the fact that I have to argue so strenuously with my own doctor my own use of cannabis medically. AND my RIGHT to use it recreationally.

The notion that a parent doesn't have the right to make decisions regarding their own child's treatment is, in my honest opinion, so ludicrous in and of itself it defies belief. Since when, exactly?

P.S. I feel deeply for that child and that family. Brain tumors run in my family but they're not gliomas that take lives, they just give us headaches and when they're removed sometimes they have to take a little piece of brain with it. I feel for anyone dealing with cancer and chemo/radiation Tx as it is, but children, especially heartbreaking. Last year our community lost a 4yo to brain cancer, possibly the same cancer that this little boy Cash is living with.
 
ronvmpc

ronvmpc

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That was a great read. That little guy's tough. Camper for 9 months? Talk about love...

Nah Man, that was a bug in my eye
 
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UCtestn

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Cool story. Loved it. Thanks for sharing.

Gotta love the name!
 
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MIway

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The notion that a parent doesn't have the right to make decisions regarding their own child's treatment is, in my honest opinion, so ludicrous in and of itself it defies belief. Since when, exactly?


It wouldn't surprise me if a local prosecutor thought this to be interfering with a child's medically necessary treatment & a potential endangerment of the child's overall health... the concealed dosing of this poor child by a drug addict.

Just wouldn't put it past a prosecutor... or that they call in social services on the dad.

:scared0016:
 
Seamaiden

Seamaiden

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It wouldn't surprise me if a local prosecutor thought this to be interfering with a child's medically necessary treatment & a potential endangerment of the child's overall health... the concealed dosing of this poor child by a drug addict.

Just wouldn't put it past a prosecutor... or that they call in social services on the dad.

:scared0016:

I agree with you, I think those are likely scenarios. This reminds me of the father who's in jail because he pulled the plug on his son who was on life support after choking on a bit of balloon.
 
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amstercal

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I can totally see some local DA getting his panties in a bunch. What a wretched experience for them all to go through.

After having a difficult pregnancy and a lot of time at doctors and in the hospital, I absolutely agree with Seamaiden. That's ridiculous to say that doctors are open. When it comes to small children or babies especially, doctors are not at all open to parents injecting their own treatment plans into a child's regimen. I can understand how frustrated drs must get with everyone now thinking they can diagnose themselves from WebMD or whatever, and I think it's made them even less likely to consider parents' suggestions.

Try spending a couple of weeks in the NICU with your child. I assure you their program has nothing to do with parents' wishes, just their protocol. My choices were pretty much go along with everything they say or take my child out against dr's orders and sign something to that effect etc. If you want their help, it will be THEIR help. This was at a highly regarded teaching hospital with some of the country's best drs. My heart goes out to that family.
 
markscastle

markscastle

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If you ask me I think canabutter should be required in the school lunch program in small quanities as preventive medication.I gess there should be an opt out for the parents who don`t agree with medical marijuana. Part of the building blocks to good health and nutrition.
 
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mal

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Very Cool

Nice work, great story guys a true hero



mal
 
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