Eleven-year-old girl dies while her parents are praying.

Yesterday was a bad day. When I awoke and went out to drive to breakfast with a friend, I found that two of the tires on my car were flat. Later in the day, I went to a restaurant where service has deteriorated much over the last few months, and where the service yesterday was so terrible that I complained to the manager. We got our meals gratis. Then, I went to Office Max to buy a new filing cabinet and found that despite having been told (previously, when I called to ask) that I could get free delivery on any item over $50, that that would not be the case. Free delivery is only if I ordered from online. So, I had to load it  up and lug it home. See what I mean about a bad day?

Well, today is not much better.

I read a piece in the Virginian-Pilot about a family who didn’t seek medical care for their seriously ill eleven-year-old daughter because they didn’t believe in medical treatment. They believed that God alone has the ability to heal the sick.

Kara Neumann, a beautiful eleven-year-old, died from untreated diabetic ketoacidosis resulting form undiagnosed and untreated juvenile diabetes. This condition occurs when the body fails to produce insulin, which then leads to severe dehdration and impairment of muscle, lung, and heart function. So, she died. Everything stopped working, and she died.

Kara had not seen a doctor since she was three, and, according to a police report, she no longer had the strength to eat or drink or even to speak on the day before she died. She reportedly could not move her mouth and just made moaning noises and moved her eyes back and forth.

Her parents, Dale and Leilana Neumann, are said to be followers of an online faith outrach called Unleavened Bread Ministries, which calls for healing by faith alone and talks about the end of the world. I visited the Unleavened Bread Ministries web site and even found one of their published writings that talks about Christians (who are not a part of their ministry) having a microchip in their foreheads. I kid you not. The Neumanns reportedly believe that if they had taken Kara to a doctor for treatment they would be cut off from God.

Now, I’m sorry if I offend anyone … but these people are nuts! Not the psychiatric diagnosis, medication-will-help kind, but weak-willed, callous, no common sense kind of nuts. And yes, I know it’s not politicaly correct to call someone nuts, but that is not a slam on anyone other than the Neumanns. As I said, they are weak-willed, callous, and have no common sense, and I can think of no other word that is so universally known to describe this type of person, to describe them. Again, I apologize.

I’m an insulin-dependent diabetic. Every day I have to use a needle to inject insulin into my abdomen. My life depends on doing so. I see doctors. And I’m not cut off from God. God has blessed me with many things, one of which was the discovery that I have diabetes and led me to a doctor to properly treat me.

Leilane Neumann and Dale Neumann are are chrged of reckless endangerment. If convicted, each faces up to 25 years in prison. I hope they use that time (if convicted) to get a grip on their lives and beliefs and not follow another pseudo-religious group like the Unleavend Bread Ministries. That group has caused enough damage. 

To watch a lively and vivacious young girl die before their eyes when medical care would have been easily obtainable is wrong, wrong, wrong. Just plain wrong.

Mentally ill man covered with feces attacks Continental Airlines attendant

This is a sad story.

You may have heard about the Continental Airlines passenger who went into the plane’s bathroom and emerged covered in his own feces. He then assaulted the flight’s sole attendant, pinning him down until several passengers assisted in subduing the confused man. The attendant wisely had the other passengers move to the front of the plane while the man remained in the back row. After the flight landed in Omaha, police boarded the plane and later released the man to mental health professionals at the Iowa center where he reportedly lives.

There are many questions about this incident, and I’m somewhat confused myself. All the news reports I have read about this incident, have included the phrase, “The FBI will investigate how the man was allowed to fly unsupervised” or some variation of same. Apparently, the man was taking a holiday trip from Chicago to Houston to Omaha.

Did he have his doctor’s permission to travel? Must have …

Was he on meds? Most likely. Was he taking his meds? Who knows.

Who took him to the airport, and what was his mental state when they left him there? Good questions.

Now, I’m glad no one was hurt. And the police handled the situation well by recognizing that the man was ill and needed mental health care rather than jail. The part about the FBI investigating how the man was allowed to fly unsupervised troubles me, however. 

Obviously, someone needs to check into this. The center where he lives must have believed he was fit to travel (unless we learn later that he left without permission). The man was not fit to fly, at least not on this flight. But, The FBI? They should be out chasing bad guys, not investigating one man’s mental health crisis.

Yes, I understand the attack occurred on a plane, and these days everyone is a bit touchy–warranted I’ll agree–about disturbances on planes. But at this point let’s look at what the TSA’s impressions were of the man as he went through security. Chances are that even if the man had had an escort, he would have come out covered in feces if he had had a break at that point.

The last time I checked, mentally ill persons are not criminals. Every person with a mental illness does not require an escort.

Get the FBI outta there and place the responsibility where it belongs: back at the care center.

Just my opinion …