Boy needing urgent cancer surgery is in Poland, court hears

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35154681

Version 0 of 1.

A 10-year-old boy, who needs urgent surgery for jaw cancer, is in Poland and could be back in the UK by Christmas, a family court has heard.

Lawyers in the case said the boy's parents had sought a second opinion.

In October, a High Court judge, heard the Polish boy had vanished and made a written order stating efforts should be made to find him.

Mr Justice Mostyn granted an application, made by an NHS trust, allowing doctors to perform surgery.

He had urged the boy's parents to co-operate with doctors.

Doctors said the boy's parents preferred to treat their son with "Chinese medicine".

Specialists said the boy would die a "brutal and agonising death" within six months to a year if a tumour was not removed "very soon".

He was told there was evidence the boy, who cannot be identified, had left his home in England with his mother and that his father had boarded a ferry bound for France.

'Second opinion'

At the latest hearing, lawyers told another judge at the Family Division of the High Court in London that the boy had been traced to an address in Poland.

They told Mr Justice MacDonald that the boy was with his mother and that his father had returned to England.

Lawyers said the plan was for mother and child to return to England by Christmas.

Mr Justice MacDonald heard submissions from lawyers representing the hospital, the boy's father and from Cafcass - a Government-funded social work organisation which reviews local authority plans for children.

The case is due to be re-analysed at a further family court hearing in January.