McKenna May, 4, is a little girl at the center of a controversy. McKenna has suffered from leukemia and was put through a long treatment that has thankfully proven successful. During her illness, she had two wishes: to be rid of cancer and to go to Disneyland. However, getting the first wish and led to the loss of the second wish. While Make-A-Wish Foundation granted the trip to Disney, her father William May of Toledo has forbidden her to go on the trip because she is no longer dying. While the mother, Whitney Hughs, has given her consent, both parents must sign for such a trip.
While I disagree with his view, William May is trying to do what he believes is the principled thing. He told his daughter that these funds should be used for children who are dying and that she is now well again. The reaction of the public against him has been extremely hostile but he insists that he is trying to do the right thing in his view for children who need the program. He believes the foundation was created to grant wishes for children who have less than six months to live and those children should receive this support.
I disagree with May because he is ignoring that the foundation itself says that his daughter still qualifies. She has gone through a terrible ordeal and was in fact dying from the disease. Thus, he appears to be making a point that the foundation itself rejects as a criteria.
In looking at the foundation’s website, it does refer to a child who currently has a life-threatening condition, but it seems sufficiently generalized to encompass a little girl who has had the condition:
Step 1: Referral
We rely on medical professionals, parents and children themselves for referrals. Children who have reached the age of 2½ and are under the age of 18 at the time of referral who have not received a wish from another wish-granting organization may be eligible for a wish.
Step 2: Medical eligibility
We determine a child’s medical eligibility with the help of the treating physician. To receive a wish, the child must be diagnosed with a life-threatening medical condition – i.e., a progressive, degenerative or malignant condition that has placed the child’s life in jeopardy.
Step 3: Finding the true wish
We send one of our enthusiastic wish teams to learn the child’s one true wish. These passionate volunteers connect with wish children and help explore their imaginations for the experience that will delight and inspire them.
Step 4: Creating joy
Our wish granters create an unforgettable experience driven by the child’s creativity. It’s an incredible experience that enriches not just the lives of the children and their families, but often an entire community.
McKenna’s mom and grandma are now trying to get the little girl to Florida by asking for donations.
Susan McConnell, president and CEO of Make-A-Wish for Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, said that McKenna still qualifies and that she deserves the trip. Moreover, she noted that “[t]he doctors are the ones who determine if she is qualified.”
This little girl went through 15 spinal taps to make sure the cancer hadn’t spread, multiple chemotherapy treatments, skin burns and vomiting from the chemo, and steroid injections that compromised her immune system. She deserves the trip to Disney.
The mother and grandmother are irate with the father who they say went to few of the treatments and only secured visitation rights this year. He says that he wanted to be more involved but was kept away by his wife and the grandmother. However, he insists that his position is due to principle and not to anger. If so, I believe his stand is misplaced in light of the Foundation’s continued approval of the trip.
This would be a good moment for Disney to step in to support the trip. This is one little girl who needs to go the “Happiest Place on Earth.”
Source: Sentinel
was this young man on any sort of mood altering drug? I would be interested to know.
I know of 2 cases of either suicide or attempted suicide by people who are/were taking drugs like paxil. I have also heard it said that suicide is a substitute for murder and vice versa.
It will be interesting to find out. I think I am right in saying that almost all of the shootings done by young people have involved these mood altering drugs.
NB, with emphasis on particular film, ie Black Knight. But the 12AM showing with such a theme is not good for four months old babies……OR?
Matt J.
The Norwegian mass murderer will get max 26 years, not execution. However he is likely to have the sentence extended as is done if someone is judged incapapble of being released. This one is nuts. Will he be cured?
Bugt he was adjudged as sane now and at the time of the deed.
Of course, one can wonder at the sanity of the people who went to this particular film premiere showing.
Particularly those who took a four month baby with them to listen to the gunshots in the film.
The Norwegians. It didn’t take long for Timothy McVeigh to die. I don’t have any sympathy.
Sad story in Colorado. Semi-Automatic rifle killed alot of people and injured scores. (and handguns)
Monkey see, monkey do. Just shows Darwin was right.
Oddly seems not to be fatal to the first infected. Bad joke for bad sickness.
Who do we immunize and is there a vaccine yet?
It is raining for the third time today, and forty three days days straight.
Chinese water torture deranges people.
Mespo,
The unusual part is the Norwegians got one who is basking in the trial proceedings limelight after killing 39 on the island and 9 in town.
The smiles on both faces are the same kind of smirks of diddain.
Matt Johnson:
“Is that different than suicide bombers overseas?”
**************************
In terms of deadly consequences, no, but they are usually lone wolf psychotics with real and imagined grudges looking for vindication, attention, and control with the barrel of a gun. They rarely are used for political purposes by terrorists groups or other countries.
Yes Idealist.
Gunman dressed up as “THE JOKER” and took an assault rifle and 3 other weapons into the movie theater and opened fire, killing 12, wounding 59 more, and his apartment was booby-trapped to do even more destruction. About 20 miles from Columbine, in Colorado.
He’s James Holmes. In custody (state or federal, I don’t know). Not yet charged.
Bizarre in the extreme. One of his victims had survived the June shooting mass attack in Canada and came down here only to get killed in another one in Colorado! Nobody’s safe.
ID707,
Similar to the school killings or planned school killings in the United States. Is that different than suicide bombers overseas?
DO YOU ALL KNOW ABOUT THE AURORA KILLINGS???
As Mike S says, in Custody Wars children are always the missiles.
What a 4 year old remembers is influenced greatly by what the adults around her say. If the focus is on what a great trip they had, reenforced by lots of happy pictures, she will have nothing but pleasant memories of the trip. If the focus is on what a jackass her father is, that is what she will remember. Custodial parents (and grandparents) have an obligation to not speak ill of the non-custodial parent. They don’t need to sugar-coat, just be neutral. He may change, or not. If not, let the girl find out for herself.
Blouise,
Great donation stories!
shano:
no, it probably wont. Little girls love their fathers. He may really believe what he is doing is right. We probably ought to cut him some slack, he is probably just very happy she lived through this ordeal.
Maybe the mother and grandmother are suffering from Munchausen by proxy syndrome and the father doesnt want them harming the child.
We dont know anything about the people involved in this story, on the surface the guy sounds like an ass but who really knows what is actually going on.
Or maybe the guy wants his child to live and the mother and grandmother feel sorry for her. A good many children with chronic and deadly diseases are not expected to live and have a future, so they dont. Maybe this dad is saying bullshit to that idea and to the mother and grandmother because they think that way.
Overall we dont know the mother, father or grandmother or their motivations or psychological make-up.
I knew a mother who withheld care from her daughter and pretty much killed her although the coup de grace was delivered by an inexperienced resident so she made money on her evil doing. I think it was over a million dollars.
I dont know if she meant to kill her or was just really stupid or just couldnt handle the stress of having a sick child or liked all of the attention from having a sick child.
What an a55hole. Seriously, this is the only thing this little girl will remember about her ‘father’, that he kept her from going to Disneyland when she was 4. it will color her view of him for the rest of her life.
her father really must be a jackass. Oh well, I think it is going to suck to be him. I imagine he might even have to leave town.
sorry … forgot to cite
http://www.sent-trib.com/front-page/magic-of-donors-may-make-disney-wishes-come-true
“Following are some of the comments emailed from afar to the Sentinel-Tribune:
• A soldier in Afghanistan offered a $650 donation. ‘I know that is seems like an arbitrary number, but it is the amount that I had set aside to take a vacation with a loved one … but life had other plans for us, sadly. This seems like a good way to honor that.’
• A mother in North Carolina wanted to send photographs and a note to McKenna from her own 13-year-old who survived leukemia. ‘My daughter got a trip to Disney from Make-A-Wish after she completed 3.5 years of chemo. It was a well deserved trip and she will always have those memories.'”
Even if not married the article certainly indicates court involvement (visitation rights) and acrimony.
What also bothers me about this is by his actions, the father is saying to the child, well, heck what you have gone through was not so bad since now you’re cured.
Even if it never comes back this child will forever be scarred, literally and figuratively, by what she has had to endure, and then to endure this on time of it. A pox on his house. (And mom and granma too if they are playing the game)