Quote :

Faith healer parents avoid jail after son, 16, dies in horrible pain after they tried to 'pray away' his burst appendix
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 19:24 EST, 18 September 2012 | UPDATED: 01:47 EST, 19 September 2012


Two parents have avoided jail after admitting they let their son, 16, die in horrible agony because they chose to 'pray away' his burst appendix and refused to take him to the hospital.
Russel and Brandi Bellew, age 39 and 36, of Creswell, Oregon, pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide on Tuesday and were sentenced to five years probation after reaching a plea deal with prosecutors.
The couple, who had seven children before Austin Sprout's death, are members of the General Assembly and the Church of the First Born in nearby Pleasant Hill, which shuns modern medicine and teaches parishioners that faith healing and prayer will cure disease.



Walking free: Brandi and Russel Bellew, leave court on Tuesday after they were sentenced to five years of probation for letting their 16-year-old son died after they tried to 'pray away' his burst appendix


Excruciating: Austin Sprout, 16, died of a burst appendix after suffering appendicitis for a week. The painful disease is easily remedied by routine surgery

It was also revealed on Tuesday that Austin died in December from a burst appendix after he suffered from appendicitis for a week, the Eugene Register Guard reported.
Appendicitis, the inflammation of the appendix, often results in excruciating abdominal pain that requires heavy doses of morphine to keep under control. However, it can be easily treated with routine surgery that removes the appendix.

Left untreated, the inflamed organ can burst and spew bile into the body, which results in dangerous infections that often prove deadly.
The couple were charged with second-degree manslaughter after authorities learned the Austin's death could have been prevented if his parents had simple taken him to the hospital.
Austin's father, Anthony, died in 2007 of sepsis, after he refused to seek treatment for an infected injury to his leg.

His mother, Brandi, later married Russel Bellew -- who was also widowed.
At the time of Austin's death, his uncle Shawn Sprout, defended the congregation's practice of faith healing.
'We trust in God for everything. We trusted him to take care of our illnesses and heal us,' he told KVAL.
Social workers removed the other six children, who range in age from infant to 17, from the Bellews home.
It is unclear whether they will be returned to their parents, though a case worker said she believes they are 'safe' in the home.

Source:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2205306/Russel-Brandi-Bellew-Faith-healer-parents-avoid-jail-Austin-Sprout-16-dies.html

Don't get me started. Fuckers.

That poor kid

Just incredible. As a parent, I don't understand how anyone can put anything above the health and well being of their child; including religious ideals. Here's hoping they lose custody of their other children permanently.

Chris wrote:

Just incredible. As a parent, I don't understand how anyone can put anything above the health and well being of their child; including religious ideals. Here's hoping they lose custody of their other children permanently.

Agreed!

That's fucked up. People crazy.

It's just sick.

Religious fanaticism = mental illness.

There is no ability to think rationally.

I defend people's rights to believe what they want to believe. But when it comes to the welfare of a child, it is the parents' responsibility to satisfy the kid's needs---including medical care. At 18, the kid can choose for himself if he wants to believe in that. That kid was 16 yrs old... i wonder if anyone asked him if he wanted a doctor? You know they must have tied him down or something, cause any teenage kid would be trying to get to a phone, screaming to neighbors for help... SOMETHING, they just sat there and watched this kid in agony---
so let me get this right... waterboarding= horrible torturing and innocent kid= religious vehemence?

I say slice their sides out, cut their appendix open and let bile spew out into their bodies.

I'm sorry but you do NOT put faith over medicine. ESPECIALLY if it's life or death and ESPECIALLY when it involves someone else. If they ever get stricken w/cancer and wanna try and pray it away, then good luck with that...when it comes to the health of your child, you don't get to put that on them. These people should do time on manslaughter.

femme fatale wrote:

... These people should do time on manslaughter.

I still can't believe they walked. Probably a fundie judge.

How can you sit and just watch your child die a slow death like that. Hopefully the other children will find other homes.

I didn't know that a person could live with an appendicitis for a week, I was always under the impression that bursting occurred within a few hours or possibly a couple of days at most.

I agree with everybody else, these nuts got 7 more kids, get them out of there before something happens to another one.