Parents convicted of manslaughter in pneumonia death of girl

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Updated 4:26 pm, Saturday, March 24, 2018

READING, Pa. (AP) — The parents of a 2-year-old Pennsylvania girl who died of pneumonia have been convicted of involuntary manslaughter after prosecutors said they declined to seek medical care for the child on religious grounds.

Jonathan Foster, 35, and Grace Foster, 34, also were convicted Friday in Berks County court of child endangerment in the November 2016 death of daughter Ella Grace in Upper Tulpehocken Township, The Reading Eagle reported.

The Fosters, who remain free pending sentencing in April, attributed their daughter's death to "God's will," according to a police affidavit. They told authorities that Ella began showing symptoms of a common cold two days before she died, including lethargy and a sore throat, but her breathing eventually became labored, then rapid, and she died in her father's arms.

The defendants belong to Faith Tabernacle Congregation, which instructs members to avoid doctors and pharmaceutical drugs. Medical personnel testified that the child likely would have survived had she been given treatment.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Parents-convicted-of-manslaughter-in-pneumonia-12778962.php

---

Grace and Jonathan Foster



Ella Grace Foster
Rest in peace

[bitterross]

1. Where are all the Pro-Life people now?

Where are they? They won't say a word.

[SergeStorms]

14. Well, it was "god's will".......

so they're perfectly fine with it. And it will be "god's will" when they're sentenced to 10 years in prison for denying their darling daughter medical treatment. This religious sect's 'que sera, sera' attitude could apply to just about everything in their lives. I wonder how committed they'd be if the Mrs. suffered a compound fracture of her leg? Bone sticking out through her skin, bleeding profusely, lapsing into shock and ultimately contracting gangrene and losing her life. Que sera, sera, right dipshits?

They have six other children who were removed from their custody. Hopefully the Foster Care family can deprogram them into rational, thinking human beings. Maybe this is a case of an "evangelical abortion", where a sick child is allowed to die so they don't have so many mouths to feed. "God's will", right? God wanted that child dead, because that's the kind of ridiculously superstitious crap these people believe in. These people are so scared of life they'll invent all sorts of ludicrous buffoonery to keep from facing it's vagaries. And the Constitution guarantees their right to be completely bat-shit crazy. However, it does not guarantee them the right to deny their defenseless child medical treatment, thereby sentencing her to death.

They deserve everything they have coming to them.

[janx]

2. Cult n/t

[demigoddess]

3. they have a right to refuse care for themselves not other people, not even

their own children. When are they going to learn???

[jaysunb]

4. Dead eyes n/t

[Stryst]

5. I bet they go into sentencing praying for leniency

Wonder if s/he will listen this time?

[angstlessk]

6. IF you are God centric, why can't you believe

God created everything man claimed to be his own?

These folks wear clothes...where did clothes come from?

They eat only what God allowed them to grow?

The ONLY thing they eschew is medicine?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

7. Good. Too often parents who are responsible for a child's death

get off because of "They've suffered enough already."

No. They also need to be punished.

[Laffy Kat]

8. That photo broke my heart.

How could they? How could they? And where are the social workers? Religious freedom my ass.

[pnwmom]

9. I wish we knew more. It IS possible for someone to develop what looks

like a cold -- that you wouldn't take a child to the doctor for -- and can very quickly kill. My sister died 24 hours after she first developed a runny nose. My parents couldn't get her admitted to the hospital till the next day (in those days, they didn't have emergency rooms in that city that anyone could go to) and she died, despite treatment.

Years later, I knew a father who thought his son had the flu. The son felt terrible -- which happens with the flu -- and the father even slept in the bed with him, trying to take care of him. The boy's flu turned out to be meningitis and the boy died.

The father was a doctor who missed the diagnosis. Imagine how he must have felt.

Also, despite what some people think, doctors don't routinely prescribe antibiotics in the second day of what appears to be a cold. I once took a child to a doctor with a 103 fever and other symptoms, and he just pooh-poohed it as a "virus," and sent me off. (He was the partner of my regular doctor, who trusted me.) I decided to take him to an emergency room instead, because I was worried that his neck seemed stiff, and it turned out he had a bacterial infection, which DID require strong antibiotics.

https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Parents-convicted-of-manslaughter-in-pneumonia-12778962.php

Defense attorneys declined comment but vowed to "pursue all appropriate avenues" possibly including appeals. They argued that their clients thought their daughter only had a cold. Attorney R. Davis Younts asked the jury to focus on the facts about what the parents knew, not the opinions of expert witnesses or any feelings about the Fosters' religious beliefs.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2018/03/faith-healing-parents-on-trial-for-death-of-2-year-old-daughter/

"However, a routine course of antibiotics would have almost certainly saved the young girl’s life." -- But it isn't routine to give antibiotics for cold or flu symptoms.

[jberryhill]

10. This cult has killed NINE kids so far

Excuse me. Twenty four:

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Faith-Healing-Churches-Linked-to-Two-Dozen-Child-Deaths-208745201.html

They have a number of affiliated churches in PA.

[pnwmom]

11. Thanks for the info. n/t

[bettyellen]

12. It doesnt matter that theyd never have taken her to the doctor? Id bet theyre lying since they

Don’t really treat illnesses anyway, it makes no sense to pay attention to them- and hope for the best.

Some people think of their kids as possessions- and that they have inalienable rights to do whatever they want with them. It’s sick.

[pnwmom]

13. I didn't say that. The father seemed more ambivalent. If her symptoms

had continued for a longer period of time, and hadn't so quickly gotten worse, maybe he would have taken her. All I know is sometimes people change their minds when circumstances change. And if he understand what an emergency it was, maybe he would have changed his mind.

Also, pneumonia is the most common cause of young children's deaths. It is surprisingly easy to overlook in the beginning, and can become very serious, very fast.

I do agree that parents should never treat their children as possessions, and these parents did the wrong thing. I'm just not certain that the father, in particular, really meant to avoid life-saving care.

[bettyellen]

15. Well of course hes acting remorseful now that hes busted.

[ProfessorGAC]

16. What Bettyellen Said!

Now that he's heading up the river, he wishes he had done something different. Pretty convenient remorse.

[Chemisse]

18. It is possible that it can happen despite the best of intentions,

especially with meningitis or the recent flu strain that killed some children quickly. And nobody should not be held to blame when that happens.

However, most parents will seek medical treatment for their child if they know or suspect the child is seriously ill.

In this case, the child had cold symptoms - not alarming - "but her breathing eventually became labored, then rapid, and she died in her father's arms."

When a baby has labored and rapid breathing, it is negligent to just sit there and hold her until dies.

[karynnj]

19. I completely agree with your comments, but wonder if there was more here than we are reading

As a mother of three, I know how tricky it was to decide to take a child with the symptoms described to the doctors. I would have because with my kids a sore throat was strep nearly half of the time. Yet, that also means that I would be dragging a sick child into a doctor's office exposing them to anything that other kids there have AND exposing other kids to what mine had.

This family may have been charged because they NEVER took the kids to the doctor. There being part of that religious group - likely as prominent members as the grandfather was the minister - likely made that child's death (and the lack of medical care) suspicious. The prosecutors are dealing with a very difficult issue - that children are being denied healthcare. It might be only when kids die or are seriously impaired that they have a charge they can levy. The sad thing is that even though at least some of the deaths that have happened to children in this community could have been prevented, the community's view of medicine and doctors has not changed. Though it is speculation, it is possible that the couple, which was supported by the community, might have found themselves at odds with their own community had they taken the child to the doctors and possibly hospitalized her.

I would bet that a mother, like I was, who brought the kids for annual physicals and who had a history of bringing my kids in when they were sick, would not have been charged. Also, it would be my husband and I blaming ourselves for not immediately taking the child to the doctors, while others would be trying to support and comfort us. The same explanation that cold symptoms started two days before would have been accepted and there almost certainly would have been no charges. This also shows why the answer to "should I bring her in" was always "yes" - it was not just protecting the practice, but respecting that the parent saw enough reason to call and this could be the time where it was critical to do something.

I agree that routine antibiotics might not have been prescribed - especially as there is a concern that over prescribing - when the likely cause is a virus - is leading to many antibiotics becoming ineffective. However, I assume that the doctor would have checked the child's lungs and that likely would have led to knowing that she had pneumonia. I wonder if, at that point, the hypothetical child with pneumonia would have been hospitalized making her/him far more likely to survive.

[Maggiemayhem]

17. Go after Gloria Copeland

Earlier in the year, the televangelist advised people not to get flu shots. Get inoculated with Jesus. And send a check while you are at it. When I was young, these people were shunned and now they are mainstream. Billy Graham was the only one acceptable, the rest were called Holy Rollers. Mainline churches were full and now they are empty and Evangelical churches are the thing. Anyone of us can open a church and be tax exempt. It can be anywhere. In a shopping center,in a school, in your home. You can preach any sort of nonsense and get away with it tax free.Most evangelical churches are independent and do not answer to a council or conference. They are non denomininational. Make churches pay taxes and see how many of these nut jobs disappear. Atheists know more about the Bible than these political hostages.

[Aristus]

20. God's will? God's will?

Right now, God is thundering: "I SENT YOU DOCTORS! I SENT YOU MEDICATIONS! I SENT YOU CARING AND ATTENTIVE ALLIED HEALTH WORKERS! WHAT ELSE DID YOU WANT FROM ME?!?"

[Jedi Guy]

21. Reminds me of that old joke...

Guy goes to church every Sunday, lives righteously, and prays to God, "Lord, please let me win the lottery." His whole life he does this, and upon dying he goes to Heaven and says to God, "Lord, why did I never win the lottery when I prayed so earnestly about it?" God replies, "My son, you could have met me halfway and bought a ticket."

I've never understood the religious types who eschew modern medicine. Medicine is a product of humankind's intelligence, which they believe is a gift of God. Why not take advantage of the fruits of human intellect?

Then again, expecting logical consistency from religious zealots is kinda unrealistic...

These two deserve some prison time. Any church "official" who advised against taking the poor child to a doctor deserves the same as an accessory.

[idahoblue]

22. Should have moved to Idaho

They would have religious freedom protection to kill their kids.