Rafael Elisha Meir Cohen, the 6 year old child from Texas, who had 100,000 sign a petition on his behalf, was R”L Niftar this morning.
Rafael Elisha illness prompted Tefillos from thousands around the globe, but he was unfortunately Niftar today at Columbia Hospital.
A White House petition by over 100,000 people last year was signed in hopes of getting the boy a last-resort therapy pulled by the FDA in 2012, but the petition unfortunately fell on deaf ears.
Levaya details will be published when available.
Baruch Dayan Ha’emes.
(With reporting by TLS)
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21 Responses
BDE!
Such sad news!
Major loss to such a beautiful family & Klal Yisroel.
I wish everyone that signed the petition & more should be at this precious boys levaya.
B’DE. The article unfortunately suggests the FDA was at fault for not yeilding to the requests to approve a totally unproven form of antineoplaston therapy cancer treatment that involved using a group of synthetic chemicals called antineoplastons. This protocol had been extensively tested and there was no evidence whatsoever of its efficacy so it was not approved. When it comes to unproven drugs, we have one of the best systems in the world and decisions on safety should be made by scientists and not by the White House based on political petitions.
1.Why on earth anyone would ask the President to cure a child. Some goyim believe their kings have magical powers, but we know better. The Presdient has nothing to do with FDA policy. They would have been better off asking HaShem, or at least medical doctors, for help. Petitioning the president for good weather for Hol ha-Moed is equally rationale.
2. While from a libertarian perspective one can argue that anyone should be allowed to use any drug one wants (with the caveat that the person understand that the medical consensus that it is a waste of time – but its that person’s life and money involved, not anyone else’s), there isn’t any reason to get so worked up over the government policy of banning drugs that don’t work and have been shown to do more harm than good.
#2-Mr. Gadol Hadorah…Your self-knighted title would imply that you have more sechel than to openly share your thoughts about the controversial nature of this treatment at this time. Then again…
BD”E. A MAJOR LOSS TO THE FAMILY. A MAJOR LOSS TO KLAL YISROEL. MAY HASHEM COMFORT THE FAMILY AMONG ALL KLAL YISROEL.
Be Ashamed of YOUR comment period. It does not suggest anything but your way of thinking. Keep it to yourself. Jews from all over the world Plus the 100,000 signers of the petition are ow broke with the tragedy. It’s really not interesting your way of learning this tragedy.
BDE.I feel so bad for his family ,I davened for him especially every time I went to the Kotel.May we have no more tsarot b’yisrael
It’s a good lesson in what you put your faith/trust/hope in. The achdus for those signatures was great, and that’s why I got involved. I really thought all of us getting together could do it. (but the medical process involved is junk science)
BORUCH DAYAN HA-EMES.
This neshomo:
A. Hasn’t sinned.
B. Suffered yissurim unimaginable.
C. Was the catalyst that thru t’fila and petition, showed HKB”H His children’s Achdus.
Through these 3 items, the power that Refoel Elisha has to advocate for us in Shomayim is beyond our limited understanding.
Let us pray for his success.
A GUTTEN MOED
BDE
so sad & in the middle of yom tov…..
was hoping we could return to Hashem with teshuva & prevent this tragedy from occuring.
Refoel Elisha you really inspired klal yisroel. & now you can still inspire us to do teshuva, if we accept this wake-up message for teshuva from Hashem from this tragedy occuring
May your neshama have an aliyah, klal yisroel will miss you dearly & mourn your loss
#2 you are totally misguided. you are right that unproven drugs should not be marketed, but if a patient is certain to die and the only last hope is an unproven or even dangerous drug the moral thing is, is to let the patient have the drug
BDE
Where is your “proof” that tat ANP is an unproven drug
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Cancer/prados.pdf
above link is the proof it works
I know Sargent Schiff personally
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/06/10/dr-mercola-on-ric-schiff.aspx
To MoisheK1
The “proof” is the judgement of the FDA advisory committee of independent experts who made the recommendation that was accepted by the FDA’s own scientists. Like every proposed drug or therapy, there will always be a small number of studies or anecdotal reports of “success” but the decisions are made on the basis of the prepondrance of evidence. There is no such thing as 100 percent “proof” of efficacy or lack of efficacy.
3.
The reason is because Obama had made himself the story. With ObamaDoesntCare we need to beg the mamzer for our healthcare. Blame each and every farshultina socialist liberal democrat.
#3- You state, “Why on earth anyone would ask the President to cure a child. Some goyim believe their kings have magical powers, but we know better. The President has nothing to do with FDA policy. They would have been better off asking HaShem, or at least medical doctors, for help”
Your comment is obscene. Do you think they did NOT ask HKB”H and medical doctors to cure their child? That is your implication. You should find these poor parents (who did everything they possibly could!) and ask for mechilah.
TO Gadolhadorah
FDA is goverment NOT G-D
Sedom had a goverment
Paroh in Mitzrayim had 3 member advisory committee Bilom Iyov Yisro
FDA & CDC big-shots are UN-elected unaccountable bureaucrats
Did you ever check who the big donors for the CDC foundation are or who “donated” their HQ building
http://www.cdcfoundation.org/what/partners#category-299
FDA “independent scientists” approved VIOXX
60 months & 60,000 deaths later almost $Billion “joke” fine approx 10% of profit
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-29/merck-legal-costs-for-vioxx-reduce-profit-6-years-after-recall.html
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/14/mercks-adhd-drugs-unsafe.aspx
“the petition unfortunately fell on deaf ears.”
No, FORTUNATELY it fell on deaf ears. Burzynski is a quack and his “treatment” is a fraud. Burzynski has been taking advantage of desperate cancer patients for decades and it is sad that the family got snookered into genevat daat. Burzynski claims to do “research” but violates research standards on a regular basis. I could not find a single study in the past TWENTY YEARS that he has authored that has a comparison group, so none of his “findings” can be ascribed to anything more than chance. He is the Gosnell of the cancer world and should have been shut down long ago, but Texas regulates cancer docs like Pennsylvania regulates abortion docs.
Of course, Mark Levin blames Obama for this, too.
We are friends with the Cohen’s from the neighborhood. All you negative people have no clue what you are talking about. I can write paragraphs of what actually went on and how bad decisions by apparent ” experts” created some of the problem. Anyone who believes that our medical system and medical experts always know what they are talking about should buy a bridge. Hashem is the true judge and none of us are in any position to point fingers or make comments about a family that has had their hearts ripped out. Just as you judge- you will be judged.
charliehall
So you say it was better for the child to die a slow painful death ?
How many time did you see the child ?
Did you ever talk to the parents?
Did you ever talk to families who tried ANP by Dr Burzynski ?
What proof do you have for your statements?
I saw the child more than once was in touch with his parents, Doctors, & others who have seen ANP work 1st hand.I have copies of court documents showing Oncologist admitting they know ANP can give may patients another few comfortable years of life & much more
Please let us not argue, cast aspersions or insult anyone with foolish comments. This dear child unified us; now that he is gone let us be a credit to his memory. All that has happened has been from G-d and we who donated tefillos and money are privileged to have been touched by Rafael Elisha Meir Cohen.
May Hashem console the family among the other mourners of Tzion and Yerushalayim.