Cancer teen returned to parents' custody

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- A Texas judge has ordered the return of a 13-year-old teenager with cancer to her parents after four months of being in state custody.

Judge Jack Hunter dismissed the state's Child Protective Services from supervising Katie Wernecke's medical treatment for Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the lymph nodes.

The girl's treatments have been the focus of a state custody battle since June 4 when she was removed from her parents after they refused to allow radiation treatments at a cancer center in Houston. The Werneckes have said they are fearful of the treatment's side effects, the Corpus Christi Caller Times reported.

"CPS and the Werneckes are never going to coexist," Hunter said. "If I leave it up to CPS and the Werneckes, that child will die.

The girl's oncologist, Dr. Robert Wells said her chances of survival have dropped from 80 percent to about 20 percent because of delays in treatment.

After the ruling, her parents said they plan on Nov. 7 to take the girl for alternative intravenous Vitamin C treatments in Wichita, Kan., which her father said would cure her cancer.