My faith in humanity is all but gone.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=546529&in_page_id=1770

Quote :

"Schoolgirl, eight, died after developing such an extreme phobia of dentists she refused to open her mouth even to eat A schoolgirl wasted away and died after developing such a fear of dentists that she would not even open her mouth to eat. Eight-year-old Sophie Waller's phobia was so bad that she had to go to hospital just to have a tooth removed. Doctors decided to remove all her milk teeth in one go, to avoid a repeat of the procedure, but afterwards she still would not open her mouth and had to be fed through a tube. When she left the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro doctors were satisfied Sophie was recovering, but her mother says she would not eat anything at home except watermelon. Her weight plummeted and health worsened until she was found dead in her bed by her mother a month later. Yesterday, more than two years after her death from acute kidney failure in December 2005, Sophie's parents Janet Waller, 33, and Richard, 35, demanded to know why an inquest has still not been held into the tragedy. Mrs Waller said: "When she came out of hospital she was obviously losing weight and was very weak. "Her eyes became sunken - she couldn't walk and we had to carry her. "Then one day I went to her room and found her cold. We called an ambulance but she was already dead. "I am really angry that there has been no inquest. Questions need answering about my daughter's death." Mrs Waller, a nursery teacher from St Dennis, Cornwall, added: "We have not been able to move on in the grieving process. "The whole family has had problems coping with what happened and we want the inquest so we can have some closure and move on. "We have tried calling the coroner's office but we don't get any answers - we have asked the police and they can't help us either. "I don't want this to happen to other families, I want to get some answers." A spokesman for Cornwall coroner Dr Emma Carlyon said: "It is our intention to hold the inquest into the death at the earliest opportunity." A spokesman for the Royal Cornwall Hospital said: "This is a very sad case and our sympathies are with the family. "We are unable to comment ahead of an inquest but we will be offering all our assistance to the coroner." "

3/28/2008 11:49:16 AM

Quote :

"Doctors decided to remove all her milk teeth in one go"

am i misreading that, or did the doctors remove all of her "baby teeth" at once? and why would they do that?

3/28/2008 11:53:33 AM

Quote :

""I am really angry that there has been no inquest. Questions need answering about my daughter's death." "

Yeah exactly.

The number 1 persons to/should be held responsible are the PARENTS.

WTF WERE THEY DOING???

Quote :

"her mother says she would not eat anything at home except watermelon. Her weight plummeted and health worsened until she was found dead in her bed by her mother a month later."

AGAIN, WTF WERE THEY DOING?

THEY LET AN 8-year old EAT WATERMELON FOR A MONTH?

I SAY PUT THE PARENTS IN A ROOM AND FEED THEM WATERMELON FOR A YEAR.

3/28/2008 11:53:43 AM

Really -- the parents in this case are so fucking stupid they couldn't get their daughter to open her mouth? Slap that bitch and tell her who's boss.

3/28/2008 11:55:30 AM

How were the parents not charged with negligence or something for not taking her to the doctor or anything in the month she was slowly dying?

3/28/2008 11:55:31 AM

Quote :

"am i misreading that, or did the doctors remove all of her "baby teeth" at once?"

That's what I got out of it. wtf.

3/28/2008 12:00:37 PM

They did -- apparently this girl was so scared of dentists that they removed all her 'baby teeth' at once so she would only have to go through the procedure one time.

Like I said, someone should have slapped some sense into her.

3/28/2008 12:01:53 PM

Quote :

"I am really angry that there has been no inquest. Questions need answering about my daughter's death."

I'm no coroner, but it might have something to do with them not feeding her anything but watermelon for a month.

3/28/2008 12:04:33 PM

it sounds like we're missing something. The girl was obviously mentally unstable in some way.

but i'm not sure where the parents get off demanding an "inquest" into the death. It's up to them to get her to eat, and if she refuses to do so, then it's up to them get her medical attention. If she won't eat at home, then it's their responsibility to get her to the hospital for IV nourishment. If she died while in their care, then i don't know why they are attempting to blame.....

3/28/2008 12:04:59 PM

since when do baby teeth need to be removed by a dentist? mine all just fell out out of my head on their own.

and these parents should be held accountable. this child died because they allowed it to go on. "hey, my little girl can't walk anymore because she is so weak and thin... i'm sure she will just be fine!"

3/28/2008 12:05:44 PM

Quote :

""hey, my little girl can't walk anymore because she is so weak and thin... i'm sure she will just be fine!""

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... BUT WE ARE FEEDING HER WATERMELON!!!!

3/28/2008 12:07:36 PM

Quote :

"since when do baby teeth need to be removed by a dentist? mine all just fell out out of my head on their own."

me too...i could foresee a scenario where some teeth come in really bad but YOU NEED TEETH TO BE ABLE TO EAT...YOU CAN'T EAT IF YOU HAVE NO TEETH

no fucking wonder she was scared of the dentist...last time she went they took out ALL HER TEETH

not surprising that this happened in the UK where they have notoriously (at least stereotypically) horrible dental care

3/28/2008 12:13:11 PM

http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-C00001-01c20XQ.html
But watermelon has offers all of the nutrition you are going to need. I mean, all you need to live on is Vitamin A, C, glucose and potassium, right?

To be fair, she was eight and likely had some of her permanent teeth in. One would hope enough had moved in if they went ahead and removed all of her baby teeth. I'm curious as to whether the parents consented to that procedure. If not, they have legitimate beef. Either way, there is plenty of blame they need to shoulder themselves.

[Edited on March 28, 2008 at 12:19 PM. Reason : .]

3/28/2008 12:14:36 PM

^ you know, if she actually got a lot of glucose during the day, i think she would have survived far longer than a month.

but the problem with watermelon is, it is mostly water. it is just 6% sugar.

3/28/2008 12:18:32 PM

Right. It would take a LOT of watermelon to even get enough glucose. Protein, calcium, and complex carbs do have their purposes, especially in a growing kid.

3/28/2008 12:23:30 PM

The mother said:

Quote :

"I don't want this to happen to other families,"

Ummmm, I don't think that's very likely. I don't see a rash of bizarre mouth phobias and neglectful parenting happening too soon.

3/28/2008 12:41:30 PM

Why did I assume that this was from Japan?

3/28/2008 1:15:14 PM

What is this mess? The parents are acting like victims. If that guy whose girlfriend stayed in the bathroom for years got charged for neglect, then these people should be charged as well.

3/28/2008 1:17:24 PM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080328/ap_on_re_us/daughter_s_death_prayer

3/28/2008 1:43:03 PM

^ That is, unfortunately, quite common.

3/28/2008 1:44:55 PM

perhaps, but first time i've heard of it.

3/28/2008 1:47:03 PM

^ yeah, this stuff happens all the time. the main culprits are
1) religion makes people think their faith is more powerful than medicine
2) people believing in psuedo-scientific scams like homeopathy (i.e. water) and acupuncture and foregoing real medical treatment
3) people believing the government and/or Big Pharma is out to kill people, so they don't take vaccines or drugs

"Jehovah’s witness died shortly after giving birth to twins because her faith prevented her from having a blood transfusion."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/06/nblood106.xml

18 year old with bone cancer has early death from scam doctors
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=miracle20m0&date=20071120&query=cancer

9 month old baby died of infection after eczema (cracked skin) was treated with homeopaty
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/11/19/1195321684868.html?s_cid=rss_

16 year old with Hodgkins disease refuses chemo to treat his cancer with "an herbal remedy four times a day and an organic diet"
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-07-11-herbal-remedy_x.htm

Parents blame vaccines for children's autism. Other parents refuse to vaccinate their kids (which is a great way to start pandemic illnesses)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21347434/

premature sextuplets denied blood transfusions from jehova's whiteness parents
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080229/seized_sextuplets_080229/20080229?hub=Health

3/28/2008 2:52:09 PM

Why didn't they send the girl home with a feeding tube if she would not eat?

My son had feeding problems. They wouldn't let me take my son home without verifying that I could insert and maintain his NG tube. And THEN they made sure that I went home with the proper supplies and a follow up appointment within 36 hours with a pediatrician.

[Edited on March 28, 2008 at 3:48 PM. Reason : And it is absolutely on the parents to make sure that she's thriving.]

3/28/2008 3:47:44 PM

jessiejepp wrote a story in today's technician about a girl who had some easily curable disease, but her parents decided she only needed lots and lots of prayer

the girl died a month later

3/28/2008 3:55:04 PM

^ yeah, that's probably what Genki just posted - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080328/ap_on_re_us/daughter_s_death_prayer

Quote :

"The girl's mother, Leilani Neumann, said that she and her family believe in the Bible and that healing comes from God, but that 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.""

3/28/2008 4:14:04 PM

How is avoiding the dentist abnormal for a British person?

3/28/2008 4:26:33 PM

Sometimes baby teeth do have to be pulled.
2 of mine had to get pulled when I was a kid because the permanent teeth didnt aligns o didnt destroy the roots, so i wound up with double canines for a very brief while as a child.

My brother also had to have a couple of his pulled for other reasons. It does happen every once in a while.

However I can't imagine what posessed them to pull every baby tooth in an 8 year olds mouth without a REALLY good MEDICAL reason.

[Edited on March 31, 2008 at 2:24 AM. Reason : .]

3/31/2008 2:21:34 AM

um, natural selection anybody?

3/31/2008 4:10:42 AM

Quote :

"Girl dies due to phobia of dentists"

Girl dies due to a tirade of stupidity on her part and the part of her doctors and mostly her parents

New, more accurate thread title.

3/31/2008 6:08:29 AM

^ I'm cool with that.

3/31/2008 6:26:34 AM

Quote :

"um, natural selection anybody?"

unfortunately, the parents are the ones we need to be selecting against. they will probably reproduce again

3/31/2008 7:10:56 AM

the 16yr old with hodgkins-- "Abraham — full name Starchild Abraham Cherrix"

3/31/2008 7:55:06 AM

This is the reason british people have horrible teeth -- scared of the dentist. Or maybe british dentists really are scary




[Edited on March 31, 2008 at 8:18 AM. Reason : d]

3/31/2008 8:15:19 AM

The kid had some kind of mental illness. I imagine the baby teeth were rotted and needed to come out. If done in a hospital, the girl would have been put under and received pain medication after the procedure.

This is on the parents. I imagine the doctors would have been proactive had they been made aware of the situation.

3/31/2008 11:55:44 AM

^^ YOUR DAUGHTER'S MOUTH IS OPEN IN THAT PICTURE

WHAT NOW, BROWN COW?

3/31/2008 12:01:41 PM

here's another one to add to the list above of religious zealotry killing people
http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2008/03/31/1401506-parents-indicted-in-faith-healing-death

Quote :

"Carl and Raylene Worthington were indicted Friday on charges of manslaughter and criminal mistreatment in the death of their 15-month-old daughter Ava. They belong to the Followers of Christ Church, whose members have a history of treating gravely ill children only with prayer. Ava died March 2 of bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection. The state medical examiner's office has said she could have been treated with antibiotics. ..... The Worthingtons also lost a baby boy in 2001, but an investigation was closed after family members told police the child was stillborn. Several other Followers of Christ children have also been stillborn or died during home births in recent years, and none of the deaths resulted in criminal charges, authorities have said."

and here's a follow-up to Genki's post on the 11-year old dying
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stories/278693

Quote :

" 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. "

3/31/2008 5:14:41 PM

how can someone be so scared of the dentist??? This makes me sad since I plan on becoming a dentist.

3/31/2008 6:58:59 PM