Judge Decides Whether Girl Who Refused Chemo Will Be Able to Go Home

Cassandra C. who has been in the Department of Children and Families custody for months in order to receive mandated chemotherapy treatment found out she won’t be able to finish her treatment at home.

A closed door hearing was held in Middletown earlier in March to determine her fate. Judge Carl Taylor made no ruling from the bench, but recently released a written ruling, according to Fox CT.

Cassandra’s lawyer said they were disappointed in the ruling and looking into other steps that can be taken.

Cassandra has been held at a hospital since Dec. 9, according to People magazine. She wanted to finish her remaining treatments at home by commuting to the hospital.

DCF Commissioner Joette Katz said the department looks forward to the day when Cassandra can return home and her doctors are confident she has beaten cancer.

Her chemotherapy cycle is scheduled to end April 27, according to People. She told the magazine she has every intention of finishing treatment. A recent PET scan showed no active cancer and that she is in remission.

“...That played a big part in me accepting that I need to finish this and then go home,” she said to People.

Cassandra will turn 18 in September.

Cassandra was forced to undergo chemotherapy for treatment of Hodgkin’s lymphoma after the DCF was granted custody of her. Her mother supported her decision not to go through with treatment, according to court documents.

She was put in temporary DCF custody after running away from home to avoid treatment after it had started.

Her case went to the state Supreme Court, which ruled in January that the 17-year-old wasn’t mature enough to make the decision about chemotherapy. Justices noted that she ran away in the middle of treatment, something that could be more detrimental than delaying treatment.

A lawyer for DCF noted that Cassandra said that she would start chemotherapy if she started to feel sick, but by then it would be too late. He said it represented a “magical” sort of thinking.

Doctors said that Cassandra was almost assured death without treatment and had about an 85 percent chance of making a recovery with chemotherapy.

She told People that she would seek alternative treatments outside of chemotherapy if the cancer comes back.

Read the full Courant report here.

Read the full People report here.

Read the full Fox CT article here.