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Police: Girl Dies After Parents Pray for Healing Instead of Seeking Medical Help

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

WESTON, Wis. — An 11-year-old girl died after her parents prayed for healing rather than seek medical help for a treatable form of diabetes, police said Tuesday.

Everest Metro Police Chief Dan Vergin said Madeline Neumann died Sunday.

"She got sicker and sicker until she was dead," he said.

Vergin said an autopsy determined the girl died from diabetic ketoacidosis, an ailment that left her with too little insulin in her body, and she had probably been ill for about 30 days, suffering symptoms like nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst, loss of appetite and weakness.

The girl's parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, attributed the death to "apparently they didn't have enough faith," the police chief said.

They believed the key to healing "was it was better to keep praying. Call more people to help pray," he said.

The mother believes the girl could still be resurrected, the police chief said.

Telephone messages left at the Neumann home by The Associated Press were not immediately returned.

The family does not attend an organized church or participate in an organized religion, Vergin said. "They have a little Bible study of a few people."

The parents told investigators their daughter last saw a doctor when she was 3 to get some shots, Vergin said. The girl had attended public school during the first semester but didn't return for the second semester.

Officers went to the home after one of the girl's relatives in California called police to check on her, Vergin said. She was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.

The relative was fearful the girl was "extremely ill, dire," Vergin said.

The girl has three siblings, ranging in age from 13 to 16, the police chief said.

"They are still in the home," he said. "There is no reason to remove them. There is no abuse or signs of abuse that we can see."

The girl's death remains under investigation and the findings will be forwarded to the district attorney to review for possible charges, the chief said.

The family operates a coffee shop in Weston, which is a suburb of Wausau, Vergin said.

I rarely feel the need to discuss my personal life on these boards but when I read this article because it struck so close to home I felt like I should. You see my mother believes in faith healing and like the family above has chosen not to receive treatment of any kind for her uterine and cervical cancer. After a lifetime of cysts and fibroid tumors she had a pap smear done twenty years ago. The pap smear came back abnormal and the doctor told her she should take it to the next step and be tested for cancer, etc. She refused. She said God would heal her. Okay, that was twenty years ago so skip forward to the present. Nine months ago my father literally forced her into going to the doctor. She had been bleeding for two, yes two, years. After menopause. She had not shared this with my sister and I because well, frankly we were not close due to a lifetime of problems. The results came back positive for cancer. Uterine and cervical. Once again she has refused treatment stating that God will heal her. I am watching her steadily go downhill. In this case - I am the daughter of a grown woman and there is no way that I can make her do the things that I know would help her. Her choices are her choices not mine. But the 11 year old child above had no choices. Her parents selfishly made the choice for her and now she is dead. What I'm trying to say is don't let your religion blind you to the truth. God gave humans the curiosity to look for and find answers to the problems that life presents us. That is where doctors come in.

Do I feel as though the other children in the family are in possible danger? Absolutely. Do I feel as though the parents should be charged in this case? 100%. I am watching my mother die a painful, horrible death that could have been avoided. Would I wish that on anyone? NO! And these parents did this to this child deliberately to fulfill their own selfish spiritual desire to prove that God can heal. Well God also gave you a brain to use. So use it folks. Use it.

SianSkye's Blog

Faith Healing and Death

SianSkye

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