Disabled teen died of forced starvation

[Kacey]

How can people do this to other people? I just don't understand.

Disabled teen died of forced starvation

For days before Danieal Kelly died in a fetid, airless room - stifling in a summer heat wave - the bedridden teenager begged for something to drink until she could manage only one word: water.

Unable to help herself because of cerebral palsy, she wasted away from malnutrition and maggot-infested bedsores. She died alone on a putrid mattress in her mother's home, the floor covered in feces. She was 14 but weighed just 42 pounds.

The nightmare of forced starvation and infection that killed Danieal while she was under the protection of the city's human services agency is documented in a 258-page grand jury report released this week that charges nine people - her parents, four social workers and three family friends - in her ghastly death.

 

[terryl965]

Stuff like this just makes me want to go out and hurt these types of people, how dare anyone misuse the rights of parenthood.

 

[shesulsa]

That has got to be one of the most disgusting stories I've ever heard.

 

[teekin]

How many people had to turned a blind eye and said " Not my Problem" for this child to die? If One person, just One had taken a stand would this child be alive? If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem. I hate reading this kind of crap, it makes me think of the puppy millers I deal with. 1200 M with a supersonic. The world would be a better place with them gone.
Lori:flammad:

 

[stickarts]

unbelievable.

 

[tshadowchaser]

I do not think the laws and courts are hard enough on people who do this to another human being.

 

[ackks10]

this is all over the news in New Jersey, and this happen over the bridge in Phily,i have a step sister with the same thing, you know when you hear of crap like this ,it makes you think of things, i would do the same thing to them, don't feed or give them water,let them know what it felt like,
the only thing i can say now is " god bless that little girl'

 

[Lynne]

This makes me so sad. I grieve for that little girl.

 

[jkembry]

What a shame...something could have and should have been done. I can't help but think that more people knew this was happening...why didn't they step up?

 

[Jenna]

Kids with cerebral palsy can be as intelligent and loving and giving as any.. I did some voluntary respite work and I got as much happiness and enjoyment from those kids as I hope in my heart they maybe got from me. It saddens me to read this. It is not so difficult to see the reasons why a step-mother to her estranged husband's disabled daughter would abandon her. Yet no matter how many understandable reasons there are, there are very few valid excuses for abandonment and there are NONE whatsoever for this kind of shameful and dishonourable mistreatment.
Jenna

 

[bowser666]

People are scum. I can't believe it, What is this world coming to ?

 

[zacthechef]

Oh my god.
This is nuts.
You know what really gets me, is that if you shoot someone in the head, you goto jail for like what, 25 yrs?
But i highly doubt the mother and ppl responsible for this helpless girls shamefull and horrific death will not even see a shaving of that kind of time inside...
and i would much rather be shot in the head than die that way.

 

[Tez3]

What gets me as well is that after every case like this the authorities are there on screen and in the papers swearing this will never happen again, lessons have been learned etc etc ad nauseum yet it does and the social workers put it down to there being too few of them overloaded with work and 'it's regrettable this one slipped through the net'. That net must have pretty big holes because horrifically this is happening more and more.
We've had a recent case where the mother and step father starved their children like this, one died and the other children were rescued...eventually. It's gone to court now and hopefully a very long custodial sentence is in store for them in prisons where the inmates don't like what they've done.

 

[teekin]

You know what kills me Tez, the shear volume of bureaucratic horse **** that stands in the way of getting these kids the hell out of those places. Safety nets my ***! It's just miles of loosely twisted dental floss, the kids whose parents live below the poverty line or on the margins of society fall right through or never even see the damn net. There will be a 500 page manual for a problem that could be delt with in a 1 page memo. And more kids will die while the manual is under review. :barf:
Don't count on the government to look out for them, individuals in society need to step up and do what what is right even if it is a little inconvenient or troublesome. Even doing something small like sending kids clothes, a bottle of shampoo, a few pairs of jeans to a battered womens' shelter is a positive step. :soapbox: OK, I'll get off my high horse now. Lori M