Judge denies mom's request to regain custody of boy, stop his chemo

A Suffolk court turned down a request Thursday from a Long Island mother who wants to regain custody of her son and for the boy's mandated chemotherapy to stop.

In Suffolk County Family Court, Elliot Schlissel, an attorney for Candace Gundersen, presented an affidavit from a Florida practitioner to show how alternative therapy was benefiting Nicholas Gundersen, 13, and that his mother was acting in the child's best interest.

The document supported an "emergency release," an appeal to have Nicholas returned to his mother's custody, Schlissel said. The teen has leukemia.

Judge Matthew Hughes last week awarded temporary custody of Nicholas to Gundersen's friend, Sarah Murphy, who lives in Huntington. Candace Gundersen also lives in Murphy’s home.

The court's stipulation to Murphy was that she must abide by doctors' orders and guarantee that Nicholas receives treatment at NYU Winthrop Hospital on schedule.

A custody trial has been scheduled for December.

"He's in remission. He does not have cancer. They are treating a child who does not have cancer," said Schlissel, who vowed Thursday to continue filing motions with the court to have the boy returned to his mother's custody.

"We plan to bring another application. We will keep bringing application after application until this judge rules in our favor," Schlissel said.

Nicholas was diagnosed with a form of blood cancer known as mixed phenotype acute leukemia — MPAL — a rare and potentially deadly malignancy.

NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola maintained in a statement to Newsday last week that remission does not mean cancer-free. The hospital emphasized that reams of studies over the years have shown that treatment in the remission period prevents the rebound of aggressive leukemic cells, which can propel the disease into an untreatable form.

"In the past, children with the most common forms of leukemia only had a 20 percent survival rate. Today, it can be as high as 90 to 95 percent," Edmund Keating said in the statement.

"Even with rarer forms, the prognosis is very positive when the patients follow accepted standards of care, which involve the regular delivery of chemotherapy over a period of two to three years."

Candace Gundersen alleged last week that pediatric chemotherapy is a money-driven industry that disregards the health of children.

Schlissel on Thursday echoed Gundersen's charge and emphasized that adults in remission are free to choose treatments, such as the one Gundersen sought for her son early last month in Florida.

The Florida practitioner, Dr. Carlos Garcia, runs Utopia Wellness in Oldsmar, near Tampa. He is not a cancer specialist but offers a range of treatments aimed at cancer patients such as intravenous vitamin C, chelation therapy, nutraceuticals and oxygen therapy, among others.

Similar treatments have been offered elsewhere for children with autism. None of the treatments are in scientific literature as having been tested for pediatric leukemia.

Schlissel said he made strong arguments in court Thursday underscoring that Gundersen sought gentle treatments that were not destructive to her son's health. The lawyer and the mother contend chemo has made the boy sicker and that Gundersen wants custody because she loves her son.

"Her child has been taken away from her, and she has done nothing wrong," Schlissel said. "When he was in the hospital, she never left his side."