Court hears saga of baby's death, homeopathy belief
- 1 February 1992
WELLINGTON (PA) — The death of a 5-month-old baby had uncovered an appalling picture of a parent’s belief in homeopathic medicine, a coroner said.
Coroner Erica Kremic said the girl’s death was caused by brain swelling secondary to meningitis and associated with a spinal haemorrhage in Wellington Public Hospital on May 8, 1990.
The names of the parents and the baby were suppressed.
Police inquiries found that on April 10 last year, the child’s mother, a registered nurse, took her to a general practitioner as a casual patient. She told the doctor the baby had developed a cough a week earlier and had a discharge from both ears. She said she believed in homeopathic medicine.
The doctor prescribed antibiotic medicine and ear-drops for the child’s ear infection and swabs were taken for analysis. The doctor asked for the mother’s permission to contact her usual general practitioner, but she insisted against it.
Police found that the mother apparently did not administer the prescription to the baby but, instead, consulted an amateur homeopath in Lower Hutt on either April 15 or 16, telling him the child had an infection in both ears.
Dangerous
The homeopath told police he did not examine or treat the child because the mother indicated she was treating the infection herself. He considered the treatment she gave to be rather dangerous given that the baby was being fully breast-fed.
He told police the mother brought the baby to him again on April 25 and he was very concerned about the child’s health, particularly its arched back and general listlessness.
The mother commented to him that the symptoms looked like those of meningitis, he said. He did not offer any advice about seeking conventional medical assistance.
On April 27, about 5pm, the mother took the baby to her regular general practitioner, who saw immediately that the baby was gravely ill and insisted she be taken to hospital.
The doctor told police it took some time to convince the mother of the need for hospitalisation and she turned down the use of an ambulance to transport her daughter, saying she had her own car.
At 8pm, the mother arrived at the accident and emergency department of Wellington Hospital and the consultant paediatrician, Thorston Stanley, was contacted immediately.
Mrs Kremic said Dr Stanley’s statement to the court conveyed a great sense of frustration in dealing with the mother, who opposed him every step of the way.
The mother told Dr Stanley she was the opposition and she did not agree to the treatment he proposed till she was threatened with restraining action, Mrs Kremic said.
When first examined, the baby’s condition caused Dr Stanley to fear the baby would be permanently disabled mentally and physically, she said.
Dr Stanley said the child’s condition continued to deteriorate despite intensive treatment, and she died on May 8.
A post-mortem of the child found her death was caused by severe anoxic brain damage after bacterial meningitis caused by haemophilius influenza. A terminal haemorrhage over the child’s spinal cord and brain stem, apparently the result of a lumbar puncture made shortly before death, was also found.
Because the pathologist could not state with certainty that the death was directly attributable to the parents’ neglect in providing the necessities of life (antibiotic treatment), police did not lay any charges in connection with the death.