Dead children of faith healers in Idaho

[gardenvarietycitizen]

What you describe here is extremely common practice in many states, cities, and communities...

That is good news to hear.

I suppose in so many of the cases like in the article there's the additional problem of getting the kid somewhere where those responders can initiate action. When someone is in the ER already, not letting them leave no matter how much Mom asks to take him home is one (doable!) thing, but I wonder how many of these kids in the article ever were seen while still alive but already sick...

...though it seems they do for the most part go to regular town schools, so that's a chance.

I hadn't realized the details of their belief about the "speaking of the illness gives it legitimacy" type stuff, but I can't help but wonder, once the child is so obviously already very sick (but still savable) wouldn't there be some window to say, you know, the illness is already going, us mentioning it can't make it worse?

But of course, I don't know. I just can't imagine watching someone die like that and NOT calling 911, never mind if that's my own child even MORE so but even just a stranger, just... how?

[gardenvarietycitizen]

I'm very much wondering about the polio, too. Though perhaps that's the one disease that even people in the modern US still remember (or were told in family stories) as "terrible terrible you never want to get it terrible," unlike measles which it seems so many people remember only the mild cases and sort of view it as some rite of passage their parents went through so where's the harm, or whatever.

If so perhaps reports of polio in the US (heaven forbid that happen) would be the thing that brought more people back to vaccinating again. Dunno.

[JMarie]

Found this: whatstheharm.net/children.html

The children seem so ... expendable.

[NotALoserLikeYou]

I don't know how they get away with it because when I googled it the Courts have set precedent that parents do not have the right to do this sort of thing. You want to be a Martyr fine, but you aren't allowed to make martyrs out of your kids.

[Mama Mia]

Maybe this is just my ignorance from living in a warm state, but the amount of children who died from pneumonia seems disproportionate. I guess their immune systems were already weakened by lack of regular healthcare, but still.

It seems like a strangely high proportion of children's deaths overall. The article states that about 25% of the people buried in the cemetery were under 18 . That doesn't seem normal, even without health care. Horrible.

[doggie]

Found this: whatstheharm.net/children.html

The children seem so ... expendable.

Jesus wept for sure. but parents have been throwing their kids away for god forever. look at the duggers the are making their children into low income slave labor or religious zealots controlled by others.

[Arete]

It seems like a strangely high proportion of children's deaths overall. The article states that about 25% of the people buried in the cemetery were under 18 . That doesn't seem normal, even without health care. Horrible.

If they can ignore the suffering of a child dying from a bowel obstruction or ruptured esophagus, something tells me that some of them are into inflicting pain, not just passively watching/hearing pain. As to the pneumonia, like other people have said, pneumonia may have been the official cause of death, but it was most likely a secondary development from overall nutritional and medical neglect.

[BoomerLynn]

Found this: whatstheharm.net/children.html

The children seem so ... expendable.

That website is heartbreaking. So many preventable deaths. :(

[smittykins]

I'm very much wondering about the polio, too. Though perhaps that's the one disease that even people in the modern US still remember (or were told in family stories) as "terrible terrible you never want to get it terrible," unlike measles which it seems so many people remember only the mild cases and sort of view it as some rite of passage their parents went through so where's the harm, or whatever.

If so perhaps reports of polio in the US (heaven forbid that happen) would be the thing that brought more people back to vaccinating again. Dunno.

My grandmother contracted polio at age 19(while she was pregnant with my mom)and was in a wheelchair the rest of her life, and she's only been gone since 2001.

[DarkAnts]

I'm very much wondering about the polio, too. Though perhaps that's the one disease that even people in the modern US still remember (or were told in family stories) as "terrible terrible you never want to get it terrible," unlike measles which it seems so many people remember only the mild cases and sort of view it as some rite of passage their parents went through so where's the harm, or whatever.

If so perhaps reports of polio in the US (heaven forbid that happen) would be the thing that brought more people back to vaccinating again. Dunno.

Some people remember it because they have family that survived the disease. Some people also do research because this had a big impact in american history. These people know how bad the disease is. Some people have never had contact with a survivor. They have also never done research into the time period. These people think its a mild disease like the measles.

I remember someone telling me that polio was better then autism :angry-banghead:

[docmom]

It seems like a strangely high proportion of children's deaths overall. The article states that about 25% of the people buried in the cemetery were under 18 . That doesn't seem normal, even without health care. Horrible.

That would be an expected percentage (maybe even on the low side) in pre-modern medicine days (by which I mean prior to the early 1900s). These kids are helped a lot by good sanitation, a modern safe water supply and herd immunity from vaccinations but we still save a lot of kiddos with modern medicine who would otherwise have died. If this is a closed, in-breeding community it's likely that they, like the Amish, have a higher than usual rate of genetic disease which may account for some excess mortality. Pneumonia may or may not have been the primary underlying cause of death in these kids as it's often a result of other serious illness. For example, many kids who die from measles actually die from secondary pneumonia...

Also, vomiting hard enough to cause esophageal rupture would be a very unpleasant way to go.

It's interesting isn't it, that in these "ungodly" times, medicine has advanced to the point where infant and childhood mortality are at an all time historical low and suffering has been greatly alleviated. Kind of makes you wonder where god is in all this...