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March 28, 2008

Young Cancer Victim's Dying Wish 'Almost' Fulfilled

Topics: Human Interest

This post is a bit of departure from our regular topic here at New Hope Blog, however, given that it's about human compassion and the lack of it, we feel that it's a post that needs to be made.

This very sad story about a little girl with terminal brain cancer has been all over the news, and thanks to the media, Jayci Yaeger's dying wish to see her dad before she died, was partially fulfilled.

She got to see her dad once more before she died, but he was prevented from being with her when she died. While many fought for her wish to be fulfilled, in the end it was a terrible lack of human compassion on the part of prison officials that couldn't find an ounce of human compassion in their hearts so as to allow a little girl and her dad to be together as she took her last breath of life.

Readers may recall that Jayci's dad is serving the final year of a five-year sentence for a drug conviction in a minimum security prison camp in South Dakota, and prison officials had denied her dad's repeated requests to honor the bureau's apparent policy of allowing furloughs and transfers under "extraordinary" circumstances, but was rebuffed time and again and refused a furlough so he could spend more time with Jayci, who suffered from terminal brain cancer.

Finally, after great pressure from the media and under the supervision of prison officials, Jason Yaeger visited Jayci Wednesday for about 20 minutes -- just days before she died:

In a letter to Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska -- dated Feb. 20 and obtained by ABC News -- a regional director from the Department of Justice wrote that "although Mr. Yaeger believes his daughter's severe medical condition constitutes 'extraordinary justification,' a review of his case reveals this specific request was ... reviewed ... and denied ... because his circumstances were not deemed to rise to the level of extraordinary."

The congressman had requested information about the denials of the furlough or transfer.

Last week, after ABCNEWS.com published a story on Jayci, the Bureau of Prisons released a statement saying that officials there "have reviewed inmate Yaeger's request for a compassionate release and have determined his situation does not meet the criteria."

Jayci, named for her father's initials, had been fighting for her life since she was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 3, seven years ago. But in the last six months, she had taken a severe turn downward.

Doctors declared her condition terminal in October. Last month, they found they couldn't transfer her to a children's hospital closer to her Lincoln, Neb., home because they said she wouldn't survive the trip, Lori Yaeger said.

Jason Charles Yaeger had been allowed three brief supervised visits since the terminal diagnosis in the fall and the visits had prompted remarkable, if short-lived revivals in Jayci's condition, she added.

This brings me to pose a question to that regional director from the Department of Justice who denied Jayci Yaeger's dad permission to be with her when she died: "Please, pray tell, if a little girl's dying wish to see her dad, imprisoned for a non-violent crime and in the last year of his sentence, doesn't rise to the level of extraordinary circumstance, what does?"

Posted by Richard at March 28, 2008 10:06 AM

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