Jamal Jivanjee has just e-mailed Rifqa's supporters, and Pamela Geller also has an update: Rifqa is suffering from aggressive uterine cancer and will have surgery this Thursday, followed, in all probability, by chemotherapy as soon as she recovers from the surgery.
No further news appears to be available on her immigration status. One might almost infer that her lawyers have given up on their whole strategy of obtaining a juvenile visa for her, as that required a declaration from the state judge which they have so far been unable to obtain.
According to Pamela Geller (no source specified for the story), Rifqa's parents have not only been involved in treatment consultations prior to her own knowledge of her condition, but they were also brought to Rifqa's bedside without her consent and had to be removed when she became agitated. (Yeah, smart move for the patient: She's terrified of her parents, she's now extremely vulnerable because of her health condition. Hey! Let's bring the parents to her bedside without asking her permission! That'll help.)
I only hope that Rifqa sees to it when she turns 18 that someone else--a trusted friend--has her power of attorney for health care. Right now she probably cannot stop the state of Ohio and her own lawyers from giving her parents some measure of authority over her treatment decisions. She is a minor, and such things are in the hands of others. But when she turns 18 it will be a different matter, and she should be advised to choose her own health care decision maker as quickly as possible at that time and to put it in writing.
Comments (9)
Praying. That poor child. Isn't her birthday this summer?
Posted by Beth Impson | May 24, 2010 2:47 PM
August 10, but if she's medically vulnerable, the next of kin would usually have a lot of clout in the absence of a durable power of attorney to the contrary. Plus at that point she will be without legal immigration status.
Posted by Lydia | May 24, 2010 2:53 PM
May God restore her to health. In Jesus' Name.
Posted by Warren Anderson | May 24, 2010 3:11 PM
Any word on the prognosis?
Posted by William Luse | May 24, 2010 10:59 PM
Very bad. I forget whether it was Jamal or Pamela who had looked up a 5% chance of survival. Sounds like some sort of very rare, very aggressive cancer. And a common treatment is hysterectomy, but she's not having that, just a removal of the tumor. I'm guessing that the doctors are reluctant to do a hysterectomy on a 17-year-old, but still...
The commentators at Atlas Shrugged are in full conspiracy mode, suggesting (on the basis of no other evidence that I can see) that this is some sort of "plot" by the parents to get control of her again, it's too much for coincidence that this should come up just six weeks or so before she turns eighteen, etc.
Like most conspiracy theories, this founders on the rocks of reality: Are all the doctors supposed to be in the plot as well, and performing unnecessary surgery to help the parents do wicked things to the daughter? That one doesn't even get off the ground.
So I think we can take the story at face value--that she is just a rare 17-year-old who has uterine cancer, low as the prior probability is for that.
What I think would be an especially frightening thought for her would be that she will be helpless and her parents will have authority over her treatment. That's why she really needs to pick someone else, assuming she makes it to her eighteenth birthday.
Posted by Lydia | May 24, 2010 11:23 PM
Perhaps, if one had to see some sort of good in this, God may be calling her to himself to save her from a situation that might harm her soul. Perhaps, if she is miraculously cured, he parents might come to understand the power of the Cross. It is difficult to know the mind of God in these situations and so the best thing anyone can do is pray that God's will be done.
Most of all, pray for strength for Rifqa and final perseverance, if it should come to that.
The Chicken
Posted by The Masked Chicken | May 27, 2010 8:41 AM
Amen, MC. Praying for the surgery today.
Posted by Beth Impson | May 27, 2010 8:59 AM
Now that everybody left Rifqa after the appearance of her uterine cancer, even those who acted like they care for her cause she left Islam and became a Christian. Only her parents and her family that raised her are now by her side.
Now its manifest that killing threats were just a lie and a big lie...if they have threatened her they won't be staying near her in the hospital.
As a Muslim, yes i would say it is a sign of Allah, because she has got the knowledge about what she did and she ignored it and left Islam.
Allah said in Holy Quran:
"How shall Allah guide those who reject Faith after they accepted it and bore witness that the Messenger was true and that clear signs had come unto them? But Allah guides not a people unjust. (86) Of such the reward is that on them (rests) the curse of Allah, of His angels, and of all mankind. (87) In that will they dwell; nor will their penalty be lightened, nor respite be their (lot). (88) Except for those that repent (even) after that and make amends: for verily Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (89) But those who reject faith after they accepted it, and then go on adding to their defiance of faith,―never will their repentance be accepted; for they are those who have gone astray. (90)"
(Chapter 3: Al-E-Imran)
elkhoulybros
Posted by A Elkhouly | May 27, 2010 9:08 AM
Jesus Christ is the only one who has risen from the dead. Many muslims are having visions and dreams of Jesus. They are finding The Real God that fills the void inside of them with Real Love. Rifqa has experience this love and it's a love worth living for and dying for. The Martyrs of the Church - even today - understands this. This may indeed be a spiritual attack but the demons cannot win. Even if she dies, she dies a free soul - a soul ramson by the blood of God's Most Holy Son! I pray that God's will be done and that Rifqa will know Jesus Christ in a deeper and more powerful way. May God bless her life, may she be healed, and may she be a witness for him and plant seeds that will bring many muslims to Salvation.
Posted by proclaimation | May 27, 2010 11:42 PM