Second Opinion Always Acceptable

According to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Director, Stacie Stapleton, MD, “when your child is given a serious diagnosis, it is always acceptable and sometimes encouraged to get a second opinion”.

Despite the ongoing case with Noah, who was forceably taken from his loving, attentive parents when the family openly pursued a second opinion for their son’s Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia diagnosis last month, Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital released an article May 15th encouraging families and patients to obtain second opinions. The article, titled When Your First Priority is a Second Opionion, states that second opinions are always acceptable, includes several tips for when to pursue a second opinion, and assures readers that their doctors and teams support patients seeking second opinions, in particular for childhood cancer diagnoses.

Upon discovering this article, Florida Freedom Alliance has responded to JHACH expressing our confusion and concern of this crass contradiction between their actions and their words. Encouraging families to pursue second opinions, only to turn around and treat them like criminals for doing just that, is utterly unethical and unjust. FFA seeks to expose those who threaten the freedoms of the American people. We will not sit in silence as people are coerced into compliance with a broken and discriminatory system.

If Johns Hopkins position is supportive of families seeking second opinions, they owe Noah and his family an enormous explanation for the traumatic way they have been treated when they sought to do the very thing the hospital encourages their patients to do. In their opinion, and ours, second opinions are ALWAYS acceptable.