God helps those who help themselves
It’s the kind of story that tears you up inside.
A little girl from Wisconsin died March 23 from a treatable form of diabetes.
Her name was Madeline Neumann. She was 11.
Madeline’s parents are at the centre of an investigation because of their decision to pray for her recovery instead of taking her to receive very simple medical treatment.
Bad decision.
The girl's mother said she and her family believe in the Bible and that healing comes from God but they don’t belong to an organized religion or faith, aren’t fanatics and have nothing against doctors, the Associated Press reported.
Authorities in her hometown said Madeline suffered from vomiting, nausea, weakness, loss of appetite and a terrible thirst for about 30 days before she died.
When the symptoms of my still-undiagnosed diabetes landed all at once about two years ago, I went through two days and two nights of a living hell with a thirst like a raging forest fire and nearly blind before I got treated. It gives me an inkling of what that poor little girl went through, but only an inkling. The pain that child must have suffered through for a month because of the negligence of the two people who were supposed to love her more than anyone else in the world, well, it’s too big for me to wrap my head around.
It must have been bad. Real bad. Poor little thing.
And the parents. What can you say about those two?
Well, there’s a story from ancient Greece that might put things in perspective. I’ve seen lots of versions of this from all over the world, so insert whatever god you like. The moral’s the same.
A man was driving a wagon along a road in the country when the wheels sunk deep down into a rut. The man gets off the wagon, looks at the wheel, but does nothing to get the wagon out. Instead, he starts praying to the god Hercules to come and help him.
Well, Hercules must not have had a whole lot going on just then, cause the story goes he appeared to the fella and gave him a raking for praying for help instead of putting his shoulder to the wheel first.
“Never more pray to me for help until you have done your best to help yourself, or depend upon it you will henceforth pray in vain,” one version of the ancient fable quotes Herc as saying.
Bottom line? God helps those who help themselves.
A phone call, a car ride, a pinprick and a bit of insulin and little Madeline would be running around as right as rain instead of laying in in a coffin.
The parents themselves say they aren’t religious fanatics and have nothing against doctors, so why is that little girl dead right now?
The whole thing reeks of vanity. I think the parents had something to prove about their faith and basically tortured their daughter to death trying to prove it.
Leilani Neumann told reporters she and her husband aren’t worried about the investigation.
“Our lives are in God's hands,” she said.
"We know we did not do anything criminal. We know we did the best for our daughter we knew how to do."
Too bad they didn’t know how to dial 911. An innocent 11-year-old girl would be back to normal by now, playing and laughing, instead of in the headlines and in the cold ground.
A little girl from Wisconsin died March 23 from a treatable form of diabetes.
Her name was Madeline Neumann. She was 11.
Madeline’s parents are at the centre of an investigation because of their decision to pray for her recovery instead of taking her to receive very simple medical treatment.
Bad decision.
The girl's mother said she and her family believe in the Bible and that healing comes from God but they don’t belong to an organized religion or faith, aren’t fanatics and have nothing against doctors, the Associated Press reported.
Authorities in her hometown said Madeline suffered from vomiting, nausea, weakness, loss of appetite and a terrible thirst for about 30 days before she died.
When the symptoms of my still-undiagnosed diabetes landed all at once about two years ago, I went through two days and two nights of a living hell with a thirst like a raging forest fire and nearly blind before I got treated. It gives me an inkling of what that poor little girl went through, but only an inkling. The pain that child must have suffered through for a month because of the negligence of the two people who were supposed to love her more than anyone else in the world, well, it’s too big for me to wrap my head around.
It must have been bad. Real bad. Poor little thing.
And the parents. What can you say about those two?
Well, there’s a story from ancient Greece that might put things in perspective. I’ve seen lots of versions of this from all over the world, so insert whatever god you like. The moral’s the same.
A man was driving a wagon along a road in the country when the wheels sunk deep down into a rut. The man gets off the wagon, looks at the wheel, but does nothing to get the wagon out. Instead, he starts praying to the god Hercules to come and help him.
Well, Hercules must not have had a whole lot going on just then, cause the story goes he appeared to the fella and gave him a raking for praying for help instead of putting his shoulder to the wheel first.
“Never more pray to me for help until you have done your best to help yourself, or depend upon it you will henceforth pray in vain,” one version of the ancient fable quotes Herc as saying.
Bottom line? God helps those who help themselves.
A phone call, a car ride, a pinprick and a bit of insulin and little Madeline would be running around as right as rain instead of laying in in a coffin.
The parents themselves say they aren’t religious fanatics and have nothing against doctors, so why is that little girl dead right now?
The whole thing reeks of vanity. I think the parents had something to prove about their faith and basically tortured their daughter to death trying to prove it.
Leilani Neumann told reporters she and her husband aren’t worried about the investigation.
“Our lives are in God's hands,” she said.
"We know we did not do anything criminal. We know we did the best for our daughter we knew how to do."
Too bad they didn’t know how to dial 911. An innocent 11-year-old girl would be back to normal by now, playing and laughing, instead of in the headlines and in the cold ground.
posted by Street Wise Guy | 3:07 AM
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