A Christian couple are facing jail after they allowed their newborn baby to die from jaundice.
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Rachel Joy Piland, 30, and her husband Joshua Barry Piland, 36, from Michigan refused to seek medical treatment for their baby after she was born in February this year.
Initially the midwife and assistants described Abigail as a healthy girl, but the next day the midwife warned that she looked jaundiced. Apparently this condition is very common and affects more than half of babies in the first week of life. Most cases don’t need treatment, but excessive jaundice can cause brain damage, so it’s definitely something that you want to get sorted out.
The midwife told the Pilands that they should take their baby to hospital. Detective Peter Scaccia said:
Rachel declined to seek any medical treatment for Abigail, stating God makes no mistakes.
Brutal. By the next day she was not eating properly and was coughing up blood. Bizarrely, Rachel put the baby “near a window wearing just a diaper utilising a hairdryer to keep her warm.”
As Abigail’s condition continued to deteriorate, Rachel’s mum wanted to take her to hospital, but she “would not allow” it and later that morning the baby was found not breathing.
Police were eventually alerted to the death after her brother called up to tell them. When the officers arrived they “went upstairs and found a baby that had passed away and three other people praying for it.” Madness.
A post-mortem exam discovered that Abigal died from unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia and kernicterus, both of which are related to jaundice. The couple have since been arrested and charged with manslaughter and they could face up to 15 years in jail if convicted. I hope they bloody do because there’s no excuse for what they did to their child – Abigail could be alive and well had she simply been to the hospital, but instead she’s dead and all because of the extreme and out-dated views of her parents. RIP.
To read about the priest who accidentally killed his entire congregation after convincing them he could prove they are above death, click HERE.
