Parker just 'normal' kid, dad says
"He's about as everyday normal as everybody else," Daren Jensen told the Deseret News. "He's just the boy next door."
From four-wheeling in the mountains to playing the viola, Daren Jensen said his son is a very active teen. "He hasn't slowed up one day since he was born," he said.
It was about five years ago that Parker Jensen's name became synonymous with the issue of parental rights as his family took on the state's pursuit to force the boy to undergo chemotherapy for a rare form of cancer.
Now for the first time, the Jensens have laid out their full account of what happened in court filings this week. The Jensens continue to pursue a federal suit against two Utah physicians, two state child welfare officials and an assistant Utah attorney general.
In a 140-page statement of facts, the Jensens call themselves a "typical Utah family" from Sandy who was swept up in a whirlwind of medical egos and state bureaucracy.
They blame former Primary Children's Medical Center physician Lars Wagner for telling them that their son had almost no chance of surviving the cancer unless he had chemotherapy, not knowing that Wagner had also wanted to get Parker into a clinical study on Ewing's sarcoma, but that required the boy to be immediately placed on chemotherapy.
Time and time again the Jensens say they sought more definitive tests and opinions, even going to doctors out of state — only to find that physicians with Primary had contact and influence with the other doctors.
After several meetings, Wagner threatened the Jensens that he would contact the Division of Child and Family Services to take their son away and force him to undergo chemotherapy.
The Jensens' court brief states that DCFS caseworkers simply took Wagner's word that chemotherapy was the only option for the boy and did no further investigation. Their investigation, which did not include the Jensens' side of things, was then reviewed by a state juvenile judge, which lead to an order and warrant for the parents' arrest.
Also alleged in their brief, the Jensens say DCFS was dishonest in some of its representations to the court, including the allegation that they fled the state to avoid the court's order. The Jensens claim they were already vacationing in Idaho when the warrant was issued.
However, state officials have a much different view of things. In a large brief filed earlier, the state paints the Jensens as a couple suspicious of conventional medicine and adherents to alternative treatments.
Recent comments
One more note... I hope they get enough money to reimburse them for...
T | June 27, 2008 at 12:42 a.m.
I think that we are missing the point that the Jensens wanted to...
T | June 27, 2008 at 12:35 a.m.
To: anonymous
Getting the "facts" from the Jensens...
Cancer Daddy | May 25, 2008 at 1:56 p.m.
