Cancer-stricken boy tried to jump from car: mother

Tovia Laufau was so determined to avoid going to hospital for treatment for his cancer that he twice tried to jump from a moving car, his mother told the High Court at Auckland yesterday.

During distraught and tearful testimony, Faafetai Laufau described how the boy had to be restrained as he tried to leap from the vehicle.

But when he finally agreed to go for treatment months after being diagnosed with cancer, it was too late. That day, last September 7, he died.

Laufau, aged 41, and her husband Peni Laufau, 52, both of Mangere, are accused of the boy's manslaughter and the alternative charge of failing to provide him with the necessaries of life.

In his opening address yesterday, Ian Tucker, representing the Laufaus, said they were respecting the "clear and unequivocal wishes of their much-loved son."

The Crown says that despite a cancer warning and a diagnosis that the 13-year-old's condition would eventually kill him, the couple refused to get him medical treatment.

Faafetai Laufau told the jury yesterday that they had taken the boy to his doctor, to a specialist, to Middlemore Hospital and had been referred to the Starship children's hospital.

She described her son's fear when he learned he had cancer and how he refused to go back for treatment.

Tovia told them: "Mum and Dad, if you ever take me back to hospital, I will never, ever, ever forgive you."

And: "If you take me to the hospital I will die straight away."

Laufau told the court that on many occasions she had tried to persuade her son to go to hospital, but he refused.

At one point they took him to a Chinese herbalist because he was "happy to have medicine without surgery."

Cross-examined by crown prosecutor Mark Woolford, Laufau said the hospital authorities told her that if her son had treatment he might live or he might not.

She did not recall being told that Tovia would definitely die if he did not receive treatment.

Laufau told the court it was only on the last day of his life that Tovia asked to be taken to hospital.

He died as his mother held his hand.

She said that earlier in the day Tovia had been watching television and asked for chicken curry for dinner.

When the rest of the family came home, he told them he was fine, said Laufau.

Evidence has been given that a cancerous 15kg tumour on the boy's leg spread to his lungs.

Mr Woolford repeatedly asked Laufau why she gave her son the choice, when she knew that without treatment he would die.

She said she did not want Tovia to die without him forgiving them.

Mr Woolford: "Don't you accept that sometimes children don't want to do things but they have to regardless - they just don't have a choice.

"You as a parent have a responsibility to do what is best for your children and sometimes they don't have a choice."

Laufau: "My husband and I always act out of love for our child."

Mr Woolford repeated the question and Laufau replied that Tovia was a "mature person."

Mr Woolford remarked that the boy was not mature enough to go to the doctor by himself or stay at Middlemore Hospital by himself "but mature enough, you say, to choose whether to live or die. He was that mature?"

Laufau: "I don't know."

The trial before Justice Judith Potter continues today.