The 11-year-old Ontario girl who quit chemotherapy last year in favour of traditional First Nations therapies has died.
Makayla Sault suffered a stroke on Sunday and died on Monday, according to her family.
She had acute lymphoblastic leukemia. For that form of cancer, chemotherapy has an estimated 80 per cent success rate among patients of Makayla鈥檚 age.
Makayla, a member of the New Credit First Nation near Caledonia, Ont., made national headlines last May when she refused to continue her chemo treatments.
Makayla鈥檚 parents said she suffered severe side effects from the chemo and wanted to stop the treatments. Doctors at McMaster Children鈥檚 Hospital in Hamilton resisted and called child welfare authorities.
But after meeting with the girl鈥檚 parents, the Children鈥檚 Aid Society decided it would not intervene in the family鈥檚 decision to pursue alternative treatments. The CAS also said removing Makayla from her home 鈥渨ould cause her great harm.鈥�
Makayla said that chemo was 鈥渒illing my body.
鈥淚 have asked my mom and dad to take me off the treatment because I don鈥檛 want to go this way anymore,鈥� she said.
McMaster Children鈥檚 Hospital later said it respected the CAS鈥檚 decision in the case.
Makayla鈥檚 family blamed chemotherapy for her death Monday, .
鈥淢akayla was on her way to wellness, bravely fighting toward holistic well-being after the harsh side effects that 12 weeks of chemotherapy inflicted on her body,鈥� the statement said.
鈥淐hemotherapy did irreversible damage to her heart and major organs. This was the cause of the stroke.鈥�
In a separate but similar case, an Ontario judge ruled last November that in favour of traditional medicine.
That girl, who cannot be named due to a publication ban, was also receiving chemo for leukemia at McMaster Children's Hospital before her mother took her to Florida to receive herbal treatments instead.
McMaster doctors had said that the girl had about a 90 to 95 per cent chance of survival with chemo. But the judge rejected the hospital鈥檚 bid to compel the girl鈥檚 family and the Brant Family Children鈥檚 Services to force the child back into treatment.
