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Madeline "Kara" Neumann, 11, died on Easter 2008 of undiagnosed, untreated diabetes.  This happened because her parents chose to pray over her rather than take her to the doctor for medical treatment.  Her parents interacted on a website for Unleavened Bread Ministries and held their own prayer groups; they also have been quoted as believing that illness is a result of sin, and prayer alone can heal the illness.  They both have been charged with reckless homicide in the death of their daughter.

The mother, Leilani, is finishing up her trial right now.  The opening statements started Saturday May 16, 2009 and closing arguments are to begin Friday May 22, 2009.  Having opening statements on Saturday is rare, but the judge did not want the trial to go into the Memorial Day holiday.  Once jury selection was down to about two dozen people, they were individually questioned in judge's chambers, from what I gather, and this is also rare but was done due to the nature of the case and the amount of publicity it has received.  It tells me that the judge assigned to this case did his job well to make sure the jury was as unbiased as possible and hopefully this will help prevent any grounds for appeal.  The taxpayers are paying for her and her husband's attorneys, even though they own two homes and had their own business (which folded after this came out).  Her husband, Dale, is scheduled to be on trial at the end of July. 

Kara's condition declined over a long time, and doctors said that she could have been saved up until the moment she died.  The family argues that she was fine up until 18 hours before her death.  For anyone who knows anything, diabetes does not just pop up overnight.  There are signs and symptoms.  Parents - if your child was drinking and using the bathroom more often than normal, would you question it?  If they were more fatigued and worn out, would you question it?  Would you brush it off?  Would you think of taking them to a doctor?  Those three symptoms are the three most common in diabetes.

I suppose if you believe that God is more powerful than doctors, or don't believe that God created doctors and gave them the wisdom and tools to heal, you might not put faith in medicine.  Or if you feel that prayer is all you need to heal a physical illness, you would never need a doctor.  I'm not talking about a prayer that Little Johnny gets better.  I'm talking about full on prayers, no medicine involved or combined with the prayer.  I'm talking about putting your hand on my body and my physical illness will be healed by your prayers alone.

The kicker of this is, even though they believed all you needed to do is pray, they had health insurance.  (Why didn't they use it?!?!?)

Kara's extended family pled with her parents to call the doctor.  They just continued asking everyone they knew to pray, because Kara was sick.  They had been asking people to pray longer than the day of Kara's death, so they knew that she was sick.  Leilani used the words "emergency" and "matter of life and death" in the emails, so she definitely knew it was serious!  Finally, an 18 year old woman in CA who had just married into the family called 911, because she - Kara's new aunt, her husband - Kara's uncle, and Kara's maternal grandmother didn't want to sit back and do nothing.  This woman had never met the girl and she had picked up the phone!  Friends of the parents who were in the home and saw Kara lying lifeless didn't even do that much.

The first day of Mommy Dearest's trial, during opening statements, she collapsed.  The court ordered she be examined by EMTs.  (How ironic....she wouldn't get her daughter medical treatment, but treatment is called for her when she's being tried for her daughter's death.  Wouldn't that have been sweet justice, for them not to call because she wouldn't have wanted them to.)

Day 1 of the trial, the medical examiner said the girl's body was emaciated and malnourished.  She was also dehydrated, which supports the cause of death.  A different doctor testified about his autopsy; stating that her death occurred over time and resembled starvation, but wasn't.  She wasn't starving because she wasn't given food, but because the diabetes didn't allow her body to carry food to the body's tissue.  While there was food in her stomach at autopsy, they couldn't determine how long it had been since she'd eaten.  For diabetics, the digestion is sometimes slowed (I can attest to this because my gastro doctor has checked with me about any problems I've had in this regard).

Day 2 started with testimony of former friends of the family.  They moved here from CA to join in the Bible teachings the Neumann family did as well as be business partners in the Neumann's coffee shop.  After a disagreement in religious beliefs, their relationship ended, but when Kara's health declined, Leilani called on former friends AW and RW to pray for their daughter.  AW testifies that Leilani believed that illness meant a person was sinning.  AW also testified that Leilani asked her if she thought Kara could be sick because the two families had a falling out.  AW and RW went to the Neumann's house to check on Kara, but didn't call 911 until they saw Kara's mouth twitch.  Apparently before that point, the girl looked like she was improving.  (huh??  she was in a coma!!)  Even at that point, the family believed prayers would bring her back from the dead.

Called into evidence are emails from the family computer, sent to people for "emergency prayers".  There was also an email from a web-based preacher asking for emergency prayers for Kara.

One of my former pediatricians took the stand in this case.  He talked about the symptoms and that they would have been present for weeks, and if a person gets treated they have a 99% chance of survival, but if not, it almost always winds up in death.  An EMT testified as to the girl's condition when he arrived at the scene, and also said that Leilani told him all Kara needed was some fluids.  There was information elsewhere that stated Leilani actually tried squirting water in Kara's mouth.  (Was she trying to kill her?  She was in a coma.  She couldn't have swallowed anything.  IV fluids were the only way.) 

Day 3 starts with another friend testifying.  She states that Kara seemed fine, just tired and quiet in the days before her death.  She believes in prayer and that it can heal but she did urge the parents to call a doctor.  She says Kara was given a spray bottle with water but someone had to open her mouth for her because she wasn't strong enough to do it herself.  This friend has since stopped attending the Bible study group because of different interpretations in the Bible.

Kara's 16 year old sister testifies.  She says that her sister was tired, started drinking a lot and going to the bathroom a lot, and the day before she died, Kara needed help walking to the bathroom because she was so weak.  She was also too weak to talk, and grunted and groaned instead.  The night before her death, Kara's brother and sister slept with Kara on a couch in the living room to keep an eye on her, but Leilani was exhausted and slept in her bedroom.  The sister says that mom did come out to check on Kara during the night.  The sister also gives conflicting testimony as to whether or not someone said to call a doctor on the Sunday morning that Kara died.  She says that when she told her mom that Kara seemed tired, her mom said it was probably just puberty.  She also still believes they did the right thing in praying for Kara instead of taking her to the doctor because it's dissing God to think a doctor is more powerful.

The defense never called a single witness, not even Leilani herself.  The prosecution's closing statement lasted one hour and it's main points were that they as parents had a duty to provide medical care for Kara, that it is untrue that the illness happened so fast that they didn't have time to get treatment, reminded the jury of medical expert testimony, that Leilani told other people about Kara being in a coma but not the ER doctor she spoke with, that the failure to get medical treatment caused the girl's death, and that the government cannot take away a person's right to their religious beliefs, but it can regulate that a parent has to protect a child.  The DA also said that a parent is required to take care of their children and not even religious beliefs should get in the way.  The fact that the family called so many people asking for them to pray proves that she knew how sick her daughter was, as well as the emails that were sent using the words "emergency" and "this is a matter of life or death".

In the defense's closing statement, he basically just said that since the family prays about everything, that their praying about this is not unusual, and that as soon as the family knew how sick the girl was they had someone call 911.  He said that Kara hadn't been to the doctor in years because she was very healthy and her parents took very good care of her, and wouldn't sit by and let her die.

After about 4 hours of deliberation, the jury came back with a GUILTY verdict.  I'm elated with this news!  Apparently there was no emotion by Leilani or her family.  The only person who would go on camera to comment was her stepfather.  He said that this isn't over; they plan to investigate the DA's office for mishandling the case and creating a crime scene where there wasn't one, and they will go to the Supreme Court if they have to.  He also said that they all would do the same thing again - pray rather than get medical treatment; he doesn't hold anything against the jury because they were just doing their job - even though they came to the wrong decision.  One news reporter said a comment was made by the defense attorney that he plans to appeal, possibly on the grounds that they weren't allowed to have an expert faith healer witness testify.

My personal opinion...justice was served.  Kind of.  This young girl did not get a fair chance at life.  If both parents are convicted the surviving children will be without their sister and both parents.  No matter the outcome, they're messed up for life.  The fact that so few people involved think nothing they did was wrong is astonishing.  I'm so angry about all of it...I've only suffered some of the symptoms Kara went through; what she encountered at the end was far worse than anything I've ever gone through.  The fact that her parents did nothing but pray bothers me.  I know how I feel when my blood sugar is high - which is what she experienced at a supremely high level which caused her to go into ketoacidosis and a coma.  A high blood sugar is bad enough, but to feel worse than that I can't imagine.  To know that I could have saved her just by giving her insulin...that there are plenty of people in this city that could have....it makes me feel such a range of emotions.  I believe in prayer, but when I pray, I pray for things that aren't tangible like strength or courage or hope, etc. for myself or someone else to get through whatever situation is going on.  I don't pray for specific things, like for my diabetes to go away.  Yeah, I wish it would, but it's more or less hoping that a cure will come along.  I don't believe that prayer will heal me of a physical illness.  I believe that God gave doctors the knowledge and tools to heal.  I also feel that while this case was about prayer and faith healing, it still was a case of medical neglect.

So that's what I have for a week long trial.  I've calmed down a LOT but I know that it's not over either.  With the husband's trial in July and the appeals that will no doubt follow, who knows what will happen.  If anyone is interested in following this, I'll probably be blogging about it in July, and we've made national news too. 

Here's a Yahoo link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090522/ap_on_re_us/us_prayer_death.  You can Google too.  Here is a link to all the news stories, from start to finish, if anyone's interested: http://www.wsaw.com/karaneumanndeath/headlines.

If you're still reading, thanks for sticking with me.  Hope I didn't bore you!