Father says his son's remission is 'a miracle'

Mother accused of denying cancer treatment

Eric Fraser kissed son Jeremy outside Artie's Place diner and Dairy Bar in Peabody on July 1 after holding a press conference. (Essdras M Suarez/Globe Staff/file)

The child who it was feared would die after his mother allegedly withheld medical care for leukemia is now in remission and has returned to school, his father said yesterday.

"Basically right now, it's a miracle," Eric J. Fraser said of his 9-year-old son, Jeremy, who has autism. "He is doing excellent. His health is all good now. Basically, a lot of people wrote him off, but I put him in God's hands and look at what happened."

Earlier this year, Jeremy Fraser's mother, Kristen LaBrie, was charged with child endangerment by Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett's office after an investigation by Salem police concluded that cancer flourished in the boy's body because his mother failed to get him scheduled medical care.

LaBrie has pleaded not guilty and is free on personal recognizance. Yesterday she said in a brief voice mail that she has not had any news about her son recently.

Judges in two courts banned her from having contact with the boy or her former husband earlier this year.

"Eric has shut me out of my son's life," she said.

LaBrie referred other questions to her lawyer, Kevin James of Danvers, who declined to comment.

Since her arrest in July, LaBrie's case has been working its way through Salem District Court, and a hearing is set for next Tuesday.

Steve O'Connell, spokesman for Blodgett, said in a statement that prosecutors welcomed news of the boy's apparent improvement.

But O'Connell said Jeremy's current condition does not wipe out LaBrie's allegedly criminal acts when she was the primary caretaker of the boy.

"We're heartened by the fact that the little boy is improving, but that doesn't change the facts of the case," he said.

The boy has been able to return to the special school he once attended and has doubled his weight, his father said.

Fraser said doctors are not sure why the child's health has improved.

"The doctors can't explain it, and I can't explain it," he said. "They are in shock, and I am in shock."

In a report filed in court, Salem police alleged that LaBrie delayed chemotherapy appointments a dozen times, disrupting a carefully scheduled treatment plan.

She also failed to administer home doses of chemotherapy and collect prescriptions, police said.

According to Fraser, police reports, and records in Essex Probate and Family Court, Jeremy Fraser was diagnosed with cancer in 2006 and was to be treated at Massachusetts General Hospital, where doctors told his father that the boy had a good prognosis, until treatment was withheld. MGH alerted authorities.

Eric Fraser regained custody and parental rights with the arrest of his former wife. One of his major decisions was to let his son die without any painful medical intervention.

Doctors had suggested that Jeremy would die before he turned 9 on Aug. 9.

But Fraser said that doctors at MGH are now reporting that his son is in good health and that the leukemia has gone into remission.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Fraser said that since resuming full-time parenting duties he often turned to his father, Robert, for help in caring for Jeremy while he was at work. But that ended this October when his 73-year-old father died unexpectedly as he sat in his favorite chair in the family's home in Saugus. Fraser said his mother, Anne, died a few years ago.

Fraser said doctors made it clear that they are not convinced that Jeremy has beaten the cancer, just that he is in an unexpected remission phase.

"This kid is a miracle; that's the only thing I can say," Fraser said. "This boy is just a miracle."