Current Events - Week 13 - Controlling

13-Year-Old Girl Refuses Heart Transplant

A 13-year-old girl is home with her family after convincing British authorities to allow her the right to refuse a heart transplant.

Hannah Jones tells the Daily Mirror she's had enough of hospitals — where she spent much of the last eight years — and just wants to spend time with her parents, brother and sisters.

The newspaper is reporting in Tuesday's editions that Hannah was about to be removed from her parents' care by local authorities, who were insisting she agree to a heart transplant.

But the paper is quoting Hannah's father as saying that his daughter convinced the authorities the operation wasn't in her best interest.

Hannah was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 4. It was later discovered she has cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart.

According to the Times of London, doctors have warned Hannah that a heart transplant is risky and that, even if it succeeded, the drugs used to prevent her body rejecting the new heart could prompt a recurrence of the leukemia.

Hannah's mother Kirsty, an intensive care nurse, and her father Andrew, an auditor, say they respect their daughter’s wishes and are angry that the hospital brought the action.
Story can be found at
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,449912,00.html

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