Woman charged for not giving her son prescribed medication for disease

[Godhumor]

http://www.khou.com/news/crime/Woman-charged-for-not-giving-her-son-prescribed-medication-for-thyroid-disease-161151825.html

HOUSTON—A mother has been charged with a felony for allegedly withholding prescribed medication from her son and giving him alternative medication instead.

...

Authorities say that her son was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and prescribed medication when he was 3-months-old. At 8 months, his mother allegedly decided to discontinue the medication.

Doctors say that the boy, now 7-years-old, has suffered permanent abnormal development and brain damage because he has gone untreated.

...

The mother told police that she disagreed with the doctors and researched alternative mediations that she believed comparable to what doctors prescribed, according to court documents. She claimed to have given her son an herbal seaweed remedy.

-----------------------------

No words...just awful.

[AJTheMan]

1. Hopefully he will be in better hands now. Some people shouldn't be parents. nt

[Lionessa]

2. Cute but not quite the whole truth

Police say Hernandez’s grandmother, who lives with the family, said she never saw her daughter give the boy any alternative medicine.

Seems we aren't comparing pharma to alternative at all, but instead pharma to nothing at all.

[Godhumor]

4. Except the mother said she gave it to the child

She admitted it. The grandmother just simply never saw it.

And it wasn't about alternative medicine, it was about a mother purposely fucking up her kid by not doing the right thing.

[Lionessa]

8. She claims she did, the mother indicates otherwise, I'm skeptical

of what the truth is.

More importantly how a child with such a problem not have seen a real doctor along the way, such that even if alternative was attempted, it was properly monitored by a professional.

With some of the pharma side effects, I can understand why some situations might require an alternative. My daughter for example, couldn't handle formulas, just couldn't. She would throw up more than she drank. After discussing with pediatrician about just going start to pap and cows milk he indicated that cows milk is too hard on infant tummies. With that data, I suggested the newly available acidofolous milk with yogurt cultures. He said fine but go in for weekly anemia tests to determine if she was having any gastric bleeding, we did that, there was none, and we found an alternative to a forced feeding tube.

So excuse me if I'm not always ready to discount all non-pharma options just out of hand. Yes, kelp sounds suspicious, but it is a pretty amazing plant from what I read not related to pharma, so I wouldn't be entirely surprised if it had some amazing pharma recognized properties some day.

[4th law of robotics]

14. Ah well good thing she saved the kid from vague hypothetical ills

caused by big pharma.

And at only the cost of her going to jail and him suffering permanent brain and developmental abnormalities.

She sure stuck it to big pharma!

[Lionessa]

16. You are a strange if you believe she saved anything.

Based on what I've read and typed, I've clearly indicated she seems to have simply abandoned any aspect of caring for her child's issues. But hey, I'm beginning to realize that ridiculous responses with strawman hype bullshit are not limited to wingers.

[etherealtruth]

30. S-A-R-C-A-S-M

The poster made it pretty clear s/he believes the mother "saved nothing" and caused only harm

[Lionessa]

32. That part was sarcastic but the part taking a dig at those that are concerned about

the power of Big Pharma and related likelihood our drug supplies are not properly regulated, overly prescribed, side-effects often worse than that which it was supposed to address, and such was not sarcastic.

Therefore I felt the need to re-address that in this case, neglect is more likely than any legitimate concern about pharma safety or efficacy.

[enki23]

5. Yes. If only she'd *actually* given him faithful seaweed doses, he'd have been just fine.

[Lionessa]

7. Though many are bogus some end up with medical kiss of approval.

Seems important to point out that the mother may have simply stopped giving anything and is claiming otherwise. I would be interested in whether there is any indication who is telling the truth.

[Sans__Culottes]

20. Lionessa

You've repeated the statement that the mother may not have given the seaweed supplement.

Do you believe the outcome would have altered had she given the supplement per directions?

[Lionessa]

24. I do not know. What I do "know" is that a mother

who actually was attempting something, even if it was wrong, wouldn't have waited for 7 years to recognize it wasn't working. It seems instead she simply didn't care. I use an alternative natural med that works for me, no problem, MJ. And if it weren't for folks like me that chose to test it out, we wouldn't be finding out all the potential benefits of a WEED. So it would be far beyond where I'd want to go to discount seaweed out of hand.

The mother's behavior simply looking at the age at which anyone had a chance to recognize she was neglectful, indicates to me a high level of neglect, not a reasonable attempt to try alternative meds.

[Sans__Culottes]

26. Good answer.

I just wanted clarification of your views and find your response well-rounded and thoughtful.

I'm not against alt meds. I've taken L lysine for herpes for years. I don't need the high-priced antivirals since the lysine keeps it in check very well.

I take statins for my cholesterol. I'm very glad for mandated vaccine as a child, I had several friends with polio. Balance and common sense are in order

[Odin2005]

3. GOOD! The woo-woos are a danger to others.

[enki23]

6. What's the harm?

[obamanut2012]

22. What's the harm of not giving a minor their needed meds???

Sometimes it's death, in this case, lifelong medical and quality of life issues.

How is this not harmful?

[enki23]

28. You missed the implied sarcasm tag.

Seems no matter how obvious it is, it's never obvious enough.

[obamanut2012]

33. I don't you read enough medical threads!

I've seen posters state what you did and mean it.

[etherealtruth]

31. Seems I've heard mysterious supplements can cure just about anything

I think I've read it right here on DU

[obamanut2012]

34. +1

[Javaman]

9. Some people are just plain stupid. nt

[Arkana]

10. Oh fantastic--another mom

who thinks she knows better than medical professionals.

[dionysus]

11. ohhh, don't let the alex jones woo crew hear you saying that!

[4th law of robotics]

13. What are you a paid shill for big pharma?!?!

She had a gut feeling. How do we know it wasn't the vaccinations that caused this boy's problems?!?!? Nothing trumps a mothers intuition, not even cold hard science.

(but I wonder how many agree with it?)

[4th law of robotics]

12. I absolutely support your right to choose to be an idiot

that right ends however when you are making the choice for someone else.

Sheesh, this is 2012. We ought to be discussing how to build the most effective warp drives, not whether seaweed has magical healing properties.

[MineralMan]

15. The treatment for hypothyroidism is simple

and quite safe, once the correct dosage is established.

Seaweed contains Iodine. While Iodine does migrate to the thyroid, Iodine does not treat hypothyroidism. Mom is a moron. The hucksters who sold her on that alternative are worse than morons; they're in it for the money, while railing against "big pharma" for selling medications. They're doing the very same thing, but selling stuff that doesn't work.

Sadly, this boy has suffered what is probably permanent damage from not taking the hormone replacement medication for his hypothyroidism.

[Lionessa]

17. Based on grandmother's telling, though, and by the mother's having never even

returned the boy to a doctor for any type of follow up or check ups (I'm guessing due to no one knowing she was not doing anything, perhaps not even the seaweed), I'm more convinced that if it hadn't been the "natural" excuse, it would have been some other one.

Particularly with the grandmother who lived with them having never seen any meds of any kind given, I think the mother just did nothing; no pills, no seaweed, and apparently no doctors' visits for this or anything over so many years....

BTW, thank you for the brief as to why anyone might think seaweed would be helpful. I know many of our pills are made from flora and fauna, and some are just fine in their un-processed state to resolve issues, for example MJ.

[MineralMan]

18. Well, as usual, we only have part of the story.

Bottom line, though, is that this woman stopped giving her son a medication that is essential in treating hypothyroidism. That medication supplies the essential hormone that is not being produced by the thyroid gland. Over years, hypothyroidism can produce serious effects, especially on a growing child.

Apparently, she had heard of the seaweed "remedy" somewhere. I don't know whether she gave it to the kid, but she stopped the real medication. Some advertisers of "alternative" medicines spend a lot of time talking about how the real medication is horrible and shouldn't be used. It's part of the sales pitch for the quackery.

So, even if she didn't give the kid the useless seaweed-based nostrum, she stopped the real medication, which produces excellent results for this disorder and has few deleterious side effects at the proper dosage. She essentially ruined this kid's life, for which I blame the alternative medicine community for it's almost universal practice of condemning all other pharmaceuticals.

Quackery kills.

[Lionessa]

19. What I'm saying is that I blame an lazy, uncaring mother.

Quackery does kill, but in this case it sounds mostly like a mother who simply didn't want to deal with her son's problems and that the "quackery" aspect is contrived. Though as you say, we have only part of the story.

I think any mother would have recognized that the seaweed wasn't working long before this, IF and it seems that's a big IF, she even actually gave him that.

She was neglectful, all the way around. I don't see that as a reflection of pharma vs alternative, I see a neglectful mother.

But I'm getting used to the idea that many here are so pro-pharma as to be more dogmatic about their POV than an average alternative medicine user. I've known many of them, and if the alternative doesn't seem to work in reasonable time, they return to their MDs and go the standard route. This woman either managed to bs through quite a few MD visits or never even had them, that's neglect, not alternative medicine's problem.

[Nevernose]

21. "Alternative" medicine doesn't work

If it worked, it would simply be called "medicine."

On another note, I wonder of the prescribed medication was simply too expensive, leading the mother to try an alternate route -- assuming she tried anything else at all (the grandmother doesn't think so).

[obamanut2012]

23. My sister has this same thing

As does my friend's dog, and both of their meds are VERY inexpensive, I bet even more inexpensive than her seaweed supplement.

[Arkansas Granny]

27. It's only called "medicine" if big pharma can make money off of it. Otherwise they

call it quackery or folk cures.

[L0oniX]

25. Warning: If you have died from taking X*en*itol* call You-rLa-wyer.

[kestrel91316]

29. "Charged FOR" = billed. "Charged WITH" = prosecuted. I hate headlines like this.

I hate English abuse of all sorts.

[Confusious]

35. What's the Harm?

Alternative medicine won't hurt anyone.