Parents Pick Prayer Over Docs; Girl Dies
WESTON, Wis. (AP) — Police are investigating an 11-year-old girl’s death from an undiagnosed, treatable form of diabetes after her parents chose to pray for her rather than take her to a doctor.An autopsy showed Madeline Neumann died Sunday from diabetic ketoacidosis, a condition that left too little insulin in her body, Everest Metro Police Chief Dan Vergin said.She had probably been ill for about a month, suffering symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst, loss of appetite and weakness, the chief said Wednesday, noting that he expects to complete the investigation by Friday and forward the results to the district attorney.The girl’s mother, Leilani Neumann, said the family believes in the Bible and that healing comes from God, but she said they do not belong to an organized religion or faith, are not fanatics and have nothing against doctors.She insisted her youngest child, a wiry girl known to wear her straight brown hair in a ponytail, was in good health until recently.”We just noticed a tiredness within the past two weeks,” she said Wednesday. “And then just the day before and that day (she died), it suddenly just went to a more serious situation. We stayed fast in prayer then. We believed that she would recover. We saw signs that to us, it looked like she was recovering.”Her daughter — who hadn’t seen a doctor since she got some shots as a 3-year-old, according to Vergin — had no fever and there was warmth in her body, she said.The girl’s father, Dale Neumann, a former police officer, said he started CPR “as soon as the breath of life left” his daughter’s body.Family members elsewhere called authorities to seek help for the girl.”My sister-in-law, she’s very religious, she believes in faith instead of doctors …,” the girl’s aunt told a sheriff’s dispatcher Sunday afternoon in a call from California. “And she called my mother-in-law today … and she explained to us that she believes her daughter’s in a coma now and she’s relying on faith.”The dispatcher got more information from the caller and asked if an ambulance should be sent.”Please,” the woman replied. “I mean, she’s refusing. She’s going to fight it. … We’ve been trying to get her to take her to the hospital for a week, a few days now.”The aunt called back with more information on the family’s location, emergency logs show. Police and paramedics arrived within minutes and immediately called for an ambulance that took her to a hospital.But less than an hour after authorities reached the home, Madeline — a bright student who left public school for home schooling this semester — was declared dead.She is survived by her parents and three older siblings.”We are remaining strong for our children,” Leilani Neumann said. “Only our faith in God is giving us strength at this time.”The Neumanns said they moved from California to a modern, middle-class home in woodsy Weston, just outside Wassau in central Wisconsin, about two years ago to open a coffee shop and be closer to other relatives. A basketball hoop is set up in the driveway.Leilani Neumann said she and her husband are not worried about the investigation because “our lives are in God’s hands. We know we did not do anything criminal. We know we did the best for our daughter we knew how to do.”
How would this not be considered child abuse? They’re gonna let the other kids stay with this crazy bitch? Why?! Because she justifies her action with faith? How many more medical emergencies does she have to ignore? These kids don’t have a choice. You end up born as the unfortunate offspring of a mouth breather like this chick who believes “It is all in God’s hands” so congratulations! you get to die a slow painful death without anyone trying to help you in any significant way. Obviously God wanted this kid to die because her parents are fucking morons with an undying (pun intended) faith in Him. How much you want to bet that if the parent were suffering like this kid was their asses would have been at a hospital weeks before? The woman should be burned at the stake…I think God would have wanted it that way.
2 Comments
March 28, 2008 at 8:32 am
From reading the parents’quotes, I’d say if they were suffering like this kid, they probably would not go to the hospital for themselves either. I say this because I have known many people who believe that prayer is more effective than medicine. From what I’ve seen, these people have an incredible capacity to endure pain. Often the illness does go away and it seems to everyone that their prayer has worked. Other times, I’ve known people to die from their illness and everyone must come to terms with the prayer’s failure. And then there are others who want to stick to their faith, but decide that they aren’t strong enough, or not spiritual enough, or whatever, and their story is more about coming to terms with the fact that they didn’t stick by their faith. … I’m not defending anyone’s actions. I’m just stating what I’ve seen from the people I’ve known.
March 28, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Janet, you may be right about the parents praying their way to death as well and you do have a point in saying that people do believe that and some get better despite medical care. The question is should people that believe that really be in the care of someone else? Yes, I can pray that my cold goes away and it might. Was that the prayer or my immune system? I guess I am concerned that the lack of medical treatment for this child would be explained away by faith. That their actions are excused because they believed prayer would save their kid. I really don’t see how this is much different from an atheist parent allowing their kid to starve to death because they believed the kid didn’t need that amount of food. Anyway you cut it, its child abuse. The parent/adult has the choice to refuse medical treatment, a child does not.