Pathetic
One would think swollen glands would be a cause for concern. One would think that repeated requests to go to a hospital would be cause for further angst. One would think that the repeated admonitions from case employees and social workers to take a child be checked out would have some type of effect. Well, in this case, one would think wrongly. An eight year old boy passed away from Hodgkin’s lymphoma over two years ago, a highly curable form of cancer often found in young children; the trial against the parents is just now seeing new light. The recovery rate for this disease is spectacularly high thanks to modern medicine, and there was a good chance the cancer could have been erased with treatment and a proper diagnostician on board. Who is to blame for this?
This was a short segment in the news, not horrible enough to make it to primetime, but worthy enough to warrant a fuller discussion here. Is this tragedy a result of parental ineptitude, callous disregard for human life, or simple stupidity and lack of knowledge on the parts of the mother and father? I tend to think not one, but all three are to blame; it is important to reconcile which is the first among them though.
Repeated and persistent were the boy’s requests to be taken to the hospital, appeals that were insipidly granted in the form of cold medicine, administered by the mother. This, I believe, is where the lack of knowledge comes into play. The parents, having raised four other children, were confident in their belief that the child was exaggerating; a hospital was unnecessary. This is common in many families today, most of whom avoid the hospital if at all possible because of the long waiting periods, extraordinarily high bills, and the mistrust of medical staff by the laypeople. If it was only the child asking, perhaps they could be looked at in a kinder light. But when you have multiple people advising to do so and it still isn’t being listened to, then stupidity is being shown, or worse, brutality in the form of involuntary manslaughter.
Was it parental ineptitude? Were they simply unfit parents? I think this plays more than a little part in it. The parent’s main excuse was that they didn’t have enough money for hospital bills, and were therefore forced to administer home treatment to him. That may be the case, but if so, why did you have five children in the first place? That’s either a result of bad planning on their part, unless the children were quintuplets (they weren’t) or a lack of brainpower, traced back to the first argument. People shouldn’t be having kids that they don’t know they can raise properly, something gone over at length in earlier posts. It’s a drain on the rest of the nation, and a slight to the kids that you do have because they’re not going to receive the proper attention, values, and monetary help they will need growing up. It’s understandable that you don’t have enough money; cash flow is tight these days. It’s less understandable that you, as parents, had five kids when you both have dead-end jobs. That’s irresponsibility at its peak.
The last one I leave open, an argument I termed as disregard for human life can also be filed under “living a life with the wrong values in place.” As a parent, your first duty is to the welfare of your children, broadly defined. That means other frivolities like pets take a backseat. It doesn’t matter if your pet, in this case a dog, is “like a child to you,” the fact remains that it isn’t. A dog’s life is worth less than a human’s, especially your own child’s. You have failed that person, and there are no do-overs. The parents actually listened to the advice of others at one point, taking the boy to a clinic, but upon learning they would be charged a fee they walked out, never to return. However, in this same span of time they paid an almost $90 bill to have a dog treated for fleas. Does this strike anybody as a family full of misfits? Dogs are not more important than humans, for reasons that shall not be covered in this post; just take my word for it. It’s a sad thing when anybody dies, it’s even more sad when it’s a child, and it’s one of the saddest things imaginable when a child dies who could have been saved but for lack of effort on his benefactor’s part. In retrospect, the parents placed a dog above their own child. At best, taking into account their ineptitude and lack of education, they equalized the two. It’s pathetic.
The parents are going to feel miserable about this for the rest of their days. They’re facing jail time, and all manners of charges and accusations from the prosecution. If they’re any sort of people they will feel bad about this for their entire lives; it is not something that should be forgotten. This is not an account to be shoved to the back of the mind, and this is not something you simply stow away and start over with. You both had major failings as parents, and as people; you would each do well to remember it. Otherwise, you’re going to be committing similar mistakes in the future, and that is unacceptable; one child has already been sacrificed because of your failings. One of the articles went on to say that the mother doesn’t go a morning without waking up with tears in her eyes. It’s unsure as to whether that is a legal ploy to gain sympathy for the client or if it’s just a statement of the facts, but I hope it’s true. A child’s life was snuffed out before it had ever begun; he deserves tears. I don’t want them to be held back the rest of their lives, moping and woebegone people unable to fulfill the simplest of duties, but neither do I want them to ever forget what they have done. The child who once was deserves more than that.
infuriatingthings 