CHERBOURG, France: British and French authorities were racing against time yesterday to find a desperately ill five-year-old boy with a brain tumour who officials believe was “kidnapped” from hospital by his family.
Ashya King’s parents took him on Thursday from hospital in the southern British city of Southampton without doctors’ consent and boarded a ferry to the French port of Cherbourg on the same day.
It is not yet known why Brett King, 51, and Naghemeh King, 45, took their son and while they are Jehovah’s Witnesses, the movement said yesterday there was no indication their decision was motivated by religious convictions.
“It is vital that we find Ashya today. His health will deteriorate rapidly,” Chris Shead, a spokesman for police in Hampshire, southern England, told reporters.
“Ashya is in a wheelchair and is fed through a tube. The feeding system is battery operated and that battery will run out today,” he said.
“Time is running out for this little boy. We need to find him and we need to find him urgently.”
According to Eric Bouillard, a prosecutor in Cherbourg, Ashya’s life is in danger if he does not get medical treatment within 12 hours.
In a statement, the hospital in Southampton said Ashya was allowed to leave the ward under his parents’ supervision and hospital staff raised the alarm when the length of his absence “became a cause of concern”.
“The information we have received from his medical team at Southampton General Hospital is that he must continue to be fed via a tube by someone with the relevant medical training,” Shead said. “If he doesn’t receive urgent medical care, or the wrong treatment is given, his condition will become life-threatening.”
Bouillard said authorities believed he was “kidnapped given the circumstances of his departure from hospital”.
AFP
