Diabetic girl dies as parents pray instead of calling for medical aid - "Not crazy religious people"

"An 11-year-old girl died from diabetes after her parents prayed for her recovery rather than calling for medical assistance. Madeline Neumann died on Sunday in Wisconsin, from an undiagnosed but treatable ailment.
Dan Vergin, the local police chief, said she had been ill for a month, suffering symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst, loss of appetite and weakness.
"She just got sicker and sicker until she was dead," he said.
Even after her death, her parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, who did not belong to any organised faith, prayed over her body in the hope that she might be resurrected.
Mr Vergin said the couple, who run a coffee shop in Wausau, had blamed her death on their lack of faith.
"They have a little Bible study of a few people," said Mr Vergin. "These are not bizarre people."
Police are now preparing a report for prosecutors. However, legal action against the parents may be prevented by a Wisconsin state statute against failing to act to protect children from bodily harm. The statute contains an exemption for what it refers to as "treatment through prayer". Mrs Neumann, whose husband is a former policeman, said they had never expected her daughter to die. She suffered from diabetic ketoacidosis, which left her with too little insulin.
She said her family believed in the Bible and that healing came from God. But she insisted that they were not "crazy religious people" and had nothing against doctors.
She said their daughter had been tired over the past two weeks but the day before she died, her bad health "went into a more serious situation". She explained: "We stayed fast in prayer. We believed that she would recover. We saw signs that - to us - it looked like she was recovering."
Mr Neumann said he started trying artificial resuscitation "as soon as the breath of life left" his daughter's body.
However, Madeline's aunt said she pleaded with the dead girl's parents to take her to a doctor in the last few days of her life. As Madeline went into a coma, Ariel Gomez telephoned the emergency services from her home in California. But they were too late to save her.
She told the ambulance control room that Mrs Neumann had "explained to us that she believes her daughter's in a coma now and she's relying on faith".
The parents, who have three older children, told police that Madeline last saw a doctor when she was three to get some injections. The state law that allows healing through prayer became an issue in 2003 when a two-year-old autistic child in Milwaukee was crushed to death during an attempted exorcism. The "exorcist" was convicted on a far lesser charge than many people believed was appropriate. The local district attorney urged legislators to remove the exemption but they failed to act on his advice.

Daily Telegraph, 29/03/2008

See also: 'Religious Freedom or Murder?'
And this.