http://www.msnbc.com/local/SLT/M96047.asp?0dm=W26AN
Jensens say no cancer found
By Matt Canham
The Salt Lake Tribune
09/26/2003 - Nudged on by his father, Parker Jensen strained his neck to reach the cluster of microphones.
The results are that they didn't find any cancer at all and the state of Utah needs to leave us alone," shouted the red-faced 12-year-old, his hands balled into fists by his side.
Family members, fighting back tears of frustration, rage and desperation, reiterated Parker's statement at a news conference they called in front of their Sandy home Thursday evening. They were surrounded by supportive neighbors.
"I ask the state to leave us be," said Parker's father, Daren Jensen. "We know how to be a family. We don't need attorneys telling us how to take care of our children."
Jensen displayed the results of a battery of medical tests conducted on Monday by Boise-based physician Martin Johnston. The bone scan, MRI and blood tests not only showed no tumors, but no irregularities at all, Jensen said.
The tests echo those conducted by Primary Children's Medical Center back in May after a small tumor was removed from under Parker's tongue. But the physician there, like Johnston now, was concerned that microscopic cancer cells remain in Parker's body and could form a deadly tumor at any time.
After meeting with Johnston twice, the Jensens are convinced he will recommend chemotherapy, the exact treatment at the core of their monthslong legal battle with the state over the boy's medical care.
Johnston told The Salt Lake Tribune the Jensens would not return his phone calls Thursday. He said he had additional test results he wanted to discuss with them.
Daren Jensen rebuts that, saying he holds the results of all of the tests Johnston conducted on Parker. He plans to meet with Johnston in the coming days to discuss the next step in Parker's medical care, but calls the relationship contentious.
"When you are forced, it is hard to work with the jail master," he said.
State officials became involved back in June after a Primary Children's doctor diagnosed Parker with Ewing's sarcoma, a deadly form of cancer that normally strikes teens. The physician insisted on treating him with chemotherapy, but the family refused.
The physician called the Division of Child and Family Services to make a medical neglect claim that soon spiraled into a legal battle over the boy's medical care. The family fled to Pocatello, Idaho, to avoid court-ordered chemotherapy and pursue alternative treatments. As a result, Daren and Barbara Jensen were charged with kidnapping their own son.
Negotiations ended in an agreement in which the Jensens were able to select a board-certified pediatric oncologist, but they had to promise to follow that doctor's recommended treatment even if it turned out to be chemotherapy.
The family selected Johnston from St. Luke's Medical Center on the recommendation of a friend.
Their relationship with Johnston quickly turned contentious when he said during their first visit -- before he examined Parker -- that he would most likely recommend chemotherapy, according to Daren Jensen.
The family is now pleading with state officials to scrap the legal agreement and allow them to pursue alternative treatments at a facility they have already selected, Parker's mother Barbara Jensen said.
"I am begging. I am pleading," she said. "Let us go."
"It has been six months. The tests are still normal. Why are we still playing this game?" a defiant Daren Jensen asked. "Can't the doctors admit they were wrong? Can't the state admit it is wrong?"
He promised to fight the state if it does not back down. He also promised to battle against the felony kidnapping charges that he and his wife face.
"I will use everything I have to fight you to protect my family," he said.
Parker's case has sparked a parental rights debate in Utah and throughout the country. Barbara Jensen said her family will fight to see state laws changed to stop what has happened to them from happening to others.
"I can't believe as an American I am not free," she said.
Gov. Mike Leavitt was hesitant Thursday to say he supports the Jensens wholeheartedly, but he did say the state needs to move slowly and deliberately before getting involved in such cases.
"When you have loving, caring parents who are well informed, making difficult decisions, I think you need to move very slowly before you get the state involved in the middle of those," he said during his monthly news conference.
The Jensens will travel back to Utah as needed, but plan to stay in Pocatello with relatives as the medical process continues. Daren and Barbara Jensen are expected to attend a status hearing in 3rd District Court on the kidnapping charges on Oct. 2.
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