Family, friends mourn baby Natalie Hill at service (rat bitten)

[funkybutt]

Source: Times Picayune, New Orleans

Family, friends and members of the Westwego community have gathered at a Marrero funeral home this morning to say goodbye to little Natalie Hill.

The 3-month-old girl died a week ago today after rats gnawed at her body so badly that she bled to death.

<snip>

In a one-sentence press release, Coroner Robert Treuting listed the cause of Natalie Hill's death as "exsanguination due to destruction of soft tissue secondary to murine activity." That means the baby died from blood loss because of the rat bites.

Read more: http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/westwego_couple_could_learn_fa.html#preview

[CTyankee]

1. This sounds worse than something even Charles Dickens could write.

It's frightening that people could be in such desperate straits that their child is bitten to death by rats. It sounds medieval or like something that only happens in war torn countries in the 3rd world...and this is America!

[funkybutt]

3. So True

The thought of this actually happening is horrifying.

[rocktivity]

2. Not to be confused with the child whose toes were bitten off by rats

in Ohio yesterday...

:banghead:
rocktivity

[crim son]

9. Jeebus.

Speechless.

[Myrina]

12. OMG, there's more than ONE?!?

:cry:

[irislake]

4. This happened in America?

Land of milk and honey?

[pitohui]

21. it happened in a suburb of new orleans, land of HUGE honking fucking rats

it seems to go in waves, some years the rats are so terrifying you wonder if they are going to take you away before you manage to beat them back -- there are rat the size of squirrels around here and they can JUMP

post katrina, there are lots of waste lands where the rats can hide and congregate and it's worse than ever around my neighborhood, which is a much better one than anything in westwego, she said snottily

that said, i assume the parents were drunk/passed out to not hear the baby scream when attacked, maybe a heartless and unfair assumption but right now it's the assumption i'm making

the landlord is also a family member, this family has paid a terrible price already and i assume they'll be getting more, whether prison, lawsuits, who knows what all is coming -- if there are rats in the walls and you have an infant, then unfortunately i don't think you have the option to get passed out drunk until the child is large enough to intimidate these rats -- and a 3 mo. old child don't stand much of a chance

horrible horrible story

[Speciesamused]

5. There can be no keener revelation

of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.

[gorfle]

6. At first, I was angry with the parents...

"The couple has said that they were aware of rat problem around the home, and heard rats scratching in the walls of the house. However, Laine has said that they never saw the rats inside the building, and several family friends agreed."

But then, there was this:

""They were good parents," said Lisa Lee Normand, Casey Laine's mother. "This is all the landlord's fault...

"He let them children move in that house knowing the kind of danger they were in." "

They were renting this shithole.

You can bet this is going to be a huge lawsuit win for the family. Hope that landlord had a nice, big, fat insurance policy.

[CTyankee]

7. We don't know how much the family is at fault. The fact that the little boy has

been taken away from them suggests that the authorities have some reason to take him out of that environment.

[gorfle]

13. LOL

The fact that his sister was EATEN BY RATS would by itself be reason to take him out of that environment, even if his mom was Mother Theresa!

You are right, though, we don't know who was at fault right now. But a landlord who lets his property be overrun by man-eating rodents isn't looking to rosy.

[LisaL]

35. According to the article lanlord is the step-grandfather of the dead

baby.

[WriteDown]

16. Have you ever been to New Orleans?

I've spent many nights in some of the nicest and oldest hotels in New Orleans and many times I have seen rats in lobby or sometimes even in the room. New Orleans is loaded with them. You'll also often see them scurrying throughout the French Quarter. This child's death falls squarely on the parents. A screaming child is usually a good tip off that something is amiss.

[KamaAina]

19. The OP lives in NOLA

and, in fact, is a prominent community activist there. :yourock:

edit: I lived there myself for two years, albeit uptown. Never saw anything out of the ordinary rat-wise.

[pitohui]

22. i've seen norway rats uptown

i've seen norway and roof rats pretty much all over the GNO area, they go in cycles tho, maybe you lived there during a low rat cycle (some yrs i hardly see any rats, some yrs they're a fucking plague)

post katrina, lots of waste land, lots of rats

the upside is the enjoyment of the raptors (birds of prey) and snakes that follow the rats as prey, the downside is...i guess it's something like this

i hate the fucking rats but they're gonna be anywhere you have older wooden structures or post flood structures

even the white house had rats during the reagan tenure, it happens to all old bldgs

it's my thought that while you have an infant in the house, perhaps don't be so passed out that you don't hear the infant screaming...rats are not a rare thing found only in westwego -- i hate to blame the family but yeah right now until i know more i sort of blame the family

[gorfle]

40. No surprise eh?

even the white house had rats during the reagan tenure, it happens to all old bldgs


No surprise, eh?

:)

[funkybutt]

25. Yep...I live in NOLA

And the rats here can be huge! However, even while my home was completely surrounded by blighted abandoned houses, I never saw any of these monster rats. I saw one a few months ago in a friends back yard in a very affluent neighborhood (within a block of our Lt. Governor). So you never know, I guess!

I've seen small mice in my area, but no rats (thankfully).

:hi:

[kskiska]

26. I lived uptown way before Katrina

and one night I was looking out the window and I saw something walking across on electrical wire that ran across the back yard. It was a rat.

Another time I was getting ready for bed and saw something go into my pillowcase. I shook it out and it was a transparent lizard. I was told that they live in the walls and dark places.

Then there are the roaches…it's said they should be named the state bird.

[Feron]

29. Sounds like you ran into a gecko.

They're an import and harmless to us (but not to bugs). Geckos are nocturnal and like dark places during the day. They also bark.

http://www.geckoweb.org/profile/hemidactylus-turcicus

Ugh and don't mention flying roaches..........shudders....

[WriteDown]

42. Hmmm...

You into lizards?

[Doremus]

17. The SCREAMING of the child being eaten by rats makes a LOT OF NOISE.

And to lose so much blood as to die, the noise continued for probably HOURS.

To say the parents are innocent is ignoring the fact that they either 1) listened to the screaming without checking on the child, or 2) were not within earshot (i.e. left the child home alone) while it was occurring, or 3) were passed out drunk or high and did not hear it.

Any of the above scenarios is criminal.

[Ex Lurker]

20. thank you

there is sometimes a disturbing reluctance on DU to excuse behaviour such as this and shift responsibility elsewhere, anywhere, other than where it belongs.

[pitohui]

23. apparently n. 3 is the answer

i haven't heard anything locally to make me think anything else, they were home in the bedroom, and they did not want their baby to die, so it pretty much leaves passed out drunk...

[Feron]

28. Perhaps a rat or two was covering the baby's mouth.

It's possible that the baby did try to cry, but was unable to make enough noise to alert the parents. From what I understand, there were bites on the baby's face.

It's also possible that parents of two young children may be exhausted (possibly sleep deprived) and slept through any noise through no fault of their own.

I don't see any reason to condemn the parents without a clear picture of what went on.

[uppityperson]

30. Unless the rat bit through a major artery, then it would be quiet

May yell at the bite, but no, it wouldn't go on for hours in that scenario and the baby would die quickly.

[likesmountains 52]

18. well, the landlord was the baby's step-grandfather if you look at the article on nola.com

pretty damn awful no matter what..

[funkybutt]

24. The Grandfather (dad's dad) owns the house

The dad of the baby grew up at that location.

[Ex Lurker]

8. Family has a lot of nerve even showing up

this is on them. For the poster who blamed it on the landlord, yea, he has some responsibility for renting a shithole. But why weren't the parents taking turns staying up all night with the baby if it was so bad? Or doing everything they could to get the hell out? Find another place, move in with relatives, something. And where was the rest of the family while all this was going on? They're able to show up and wail at the funeral but couldn't be bothered to help this child while she was alive. Sorry, these weren't "good parents," and they don't get a free pass.

And yeah, I'm making some assumptions, but so are the other posters who want to help them evade accountability.

[Bette Noir]

10. This is a tragedy, which is compounded by flinging blame at bereaved parents.

I spent several hundred dollars on an exterminator to get rid of rats-- rats in a nice, big, middle-class, single family home in a nice suburban neighborhood of a world-class city. My husband and I are comfortable, verging on well-to-do, but it still took weekly visits for five months to finally get rid of the vermin. So I wouldn't put too much blame on the parents.

My condolences to the family.

[Doremus]

27. If your child was in the other room screaming in pain would you respond?

Or would you ignore it ... for hours and hours?

Assuming, of course, that you're at home to hear the screaming and not passed out drunk or high.

Because any of these scenarios is a criminal act.

Just so you know.

[uppityperson]

31. Who says the baby screamed for hours? maybe you missed this part of the story & are assuming

"The coroner's office would not discuss whether the baby bled for an extended period of time, or whether an artery was struck causing massive bleeding immediately."

There is a big difference between these 2 possibilities and I'm not assuming until I read more. If you have more up to date info than the OP, please post it as I'd like to see it. thank you

[nightrain]

39. why wasn't the baby next to someone??

[gorfle]

41. Doctor's recommend against co-sleeping.

Doctors recommend against co-sleeping.

We did it with our first child because it was literally the only way we could get her to sleep. Our second child has slept on his own since probably 6 weeks.

[nightrain]

43. car seat/bassinet/pillow? even a box in the same room?

Next to doesn't have to mean touching.

[gorfle]

44. Sleeping.

Our children's rooms are on the other side of the house from the master bedroom.

Now we used a baby monitor for a few months but we no longer do.

[nightrain]

46. I think maybe it would have been a good idea if they heard rats in the walls

to keep the baby closer. Like, make the connection between danger and a baby's needs. Otherwise, it certainly sounds like neglect, bordering on abuse to me.

Parenting education anyone?

[gorfle]

14. Why?

The family said they heard the rodents, but never saw them in the house.

Now I find this a little hard to believe, as we had a mouse problem last winter and we could easily see their little poop droppings in on the laundry-room floor.

But I guess if you never saw them you might not think much of it.

The owner of a rental property has a responsibility, usually by law, the make sure that the premises are in a habitable condition. I don't know if this covers infestations or not.

[Wendio]

15. I believe they should be held accountable...

but having lived on the west bank (Algiers) years ago, I can understand how this could happen.
There are areas now that look like a third world country. We visited our old neighborhood to show the kids where we used to live and they were shocked. Streets that are crumbled from tree roots, trash everywhere, overgrown fields, empty stores. It is depressing and I could not imagine living there now. The rats and bugs were bad 17yrs ago. I can only imagine how it is now after Katrina. (I don't believe this excuses the incident, however.)

[greymattermom]

11. murine

means mouse

[MadMaddie]

32. WTF?

The poor child. May she RIP!

[Haole Girl]

33. Omg. I didn't hear this yet.

:-(

[LisaL]

34. Wouldn't the child be screaming as she was bitten?

Nobody heard?

[Joe Bacon]

36. :-(

breaks my heart.

[funkybutt]

37. *update* "Rat bite victim Natalie Hill may get second autopsy"

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/post_25.html

"In a last-minute departure, the family of a Westwego baby killed by rats last week has decided to request a second autopsy on the child, a decision made just as the family drove to a cemetery to bury the little girl."

[Haole Girl]

48. Thank you for the update

I suspect they will find evidence of long-term abuse. :-(

[nightrain]

38. so tragic! And where were her caregivers????

[funkybutt]

45. *update* Landlord (grandfather) defends himself

http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl072309cblandlord.6cb95237.html

[nightrain]

47. "hundreds of ratbites". How terribly tragic.

[Robb]

49. Three months old.

...Maybe they had been convinced their baby needed to cry itself to sleep.

So sad. Just awful. Mine is two months, and rarely gets to take a breath for a second cry before I'm there.