27 March 2008

Daughter dies while parents pray - instead of seeking medical care

An eleven year old girl in Wisconsin died when her parents decided to treat an illness with prayer instead of a trip to the hospital.
Her mother, Leilani Neumann, tells The Associated Press her daughter's condition worsened suddenly, and the parents stayed in prayer, believing she would recover.

She also says she's not concerned about a police investigation, because she and her husband believe their lives are in God's hands and they did nothing criminal, only tried to do the best they could for their daughter.

Everest Metro Police Chief Dan Vergin says an autopsy showed the girl died from a type of diabetes that left her with too little insulin in her body. He says she had probably been ill for about 30 days.
I'm all for healing with self-treatment (although I'm more partial to aromatherapy and tea than prayer), but it the parents' fault in this case that their daughter died. The girl was probably too young to make the decision to go to a hospital or have her parents pray for her, and who's to say she didn't want to go to the hospital and her parents just kept on praying? Obviously I don't know the specifics inside this family, and I'm just speculating, but these parents need to have some sort of charges bought against them. Until someone is old enough to make the decision to go without professional medical care, the hospital is the right place for them.

WKBT

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