Jeremy Fraser

Name: Jeremy Fraser
Died: March 30, 2009
Age at death: 9
Cause of death: Leukemia
Location: Salem, Maryland, USA

Details:
When he was six years old, Jeremy was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a treatable cancer with a cure rate of 85-90%. Jeremy fought hard and responded well to treatment, and the cancer went into remission.

Two years later, Jeremy was in the last stage of his maintenance therapy when his mother, described by her lawyer as “depressed and overwhelmed by caring for her son, who was severely autistic, nonverbal and developmentally delayed”, secretly stopped giving Jeremy his medication. She stopped taking him to doctor’s appointments and did not fill prescriptions, instead pretending that she was getting them filled and deceiving doctors into thinking Jeremy was still taking the medication.

When doctors discovered her actions, they reported her, and Jeremy went to live with his father. But it was too late: Jeremy’s cancer had returned in the form of leukemia, a much less treatable illness that did not respond to chemotherapy. A year later, at the age of nine, Jeremy died.

Jeremy’s mother was sentenced to 8-10 years in prison. She was granted a second trial, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to time served, having spent five years in prison.

References:
Was it Murder? Mom Withheld Cancer Treatment from Autistic Son
Woman sentenced to prison in death of cancer-stricken autistic son
Mom guilty of denying autistic son cancer drugs
Kristen LaBrie Sentenced in Autistic Son’s Leukemia Death
Find a Grave: Jeremy Robert Fraser
Woman Who Withheld Chemotherapy Medication From Ill Son Gets Time Served, Freed