Posted on 03/12/2009 12:09:05 PM PDT by Paved Paradise
CLEVELAND — Willie Robinson's parents claimed they couldn't afford medical treatment for the dying 8-year-old boy's cancer, prosecutors said, but they had enough money to pay a veterinarian to treat their pet pit bull for fleas. A Cuyahoga County grand jury on Wednesday indicted William Robinson Sr. and Monica Hussing for involuntary manslaughter, child endangering and felonious assault.
Willie died nearly a year ago, on March 22, shortly after he was admitted to MetroHealth Medical Center suffering from the final stages of Hodgkin's lymphoma, one of the most common and curable of cancers to strike children. The county coroner found that the child died of the cancer and pneumonia, but ruled his death a homicide.
Prosecutors said parental neglect was as responsible for Willie's death as the diseases.
"They never once took him to a doctor," said County Prosecutor Bill Mason. "It just is not right. This kid should be alive today."
Investigators said while Willie suffered without care, his parents paid $87 to have the pit bull, Petey, treated for fleas.
Assistant County Prosecutor Anna Faraglia worked on the case for the past year with police and family members. She said she is outraged by how the parents ignored a child who begged them to take him to see a doctor, but was rejected.
"There were some horrific symptoms," she said. "What weren't they seeing? Even a blind person would have known there was something wrong with him."
The parents were not arrested Wednesday, and have remained free since Willie's death. They will appear in court for an arraignment hearing in about two weeks, Faraglia said.
Ok, no problem.
No teachers...none of the kids are enrolled. NOTE: It does not say they are home-schooled; it says “not enrolled”.
The aunt was blown off, but did contact social services, but by then it was way too late.
Sounds like they were unemployed pot-head (dealers?) loners. Neighbors were probably not much better.
Certainly not denizens of my wife’s family’s Cleveland neighborhoods, even if Demjanjuk did live a block or so away from my late M-I-L.
I was in four days with gallbladder surgery, due to complications, and it didn’t cost me that much. Hmm.
No, no, the long term birth control is inserted in the arm and stays there for six months, but the effects can last even longer. The woman doesn’t have to do anything but go to a clinic. I wasn’t kidding when I said that these were designed for stupid people. They push them in ghetto areas.
Yeah, I really think that it was stupidity and fear and distrust for authority.
Norplant! I had forgotten about them, though I thought they were banned from sale years ago, due to some kind of problems.
Sorry, the pit bull bill was $87.
When I went through chemotherapy, my bill total came up $1 short of $1 million.
They might not have been able to afford it and were too stupid to ask for help, or just in sheer denial.
When I was sick, I spent six weeks in bed unable to move. My parents didn’t know what was wrong with me, so they took me to an urgent care center where the “doctor” proclaimed that I had a hernia and needed bedrest.
They went on vacation, and my grandparents came to stay for a week. My parents told them no matter what I said, I just needed bedrest and not to go to the doctor.
My sister showed up one day and saw me. She dragged me out of bed, down the hallway and with my grandmother screaming at her, out to the car and finally, my grandmother said if I was going to the doctor, she was going with me.
We got to the only doctor I knew. An orthopedic specialist. He took a look at me, saw the lump on my shoulder up to my earlobe (the one the “doctor” said was a “Nice lump” then told me to turn my head and cough), and told me he was sending me to an ENT. I told him I’d make an appointment, and he then told me he was making it, and I was to go straight there. There would be no waiting. I then was taken to the ENT who told me he wanted to take me to the hospital. Right then. My parents were interrupted from their vacation, and walked in and my father started yelling at my sister. My mom started yelling at me to get out of the hospital bed, and we were leaving. The doctor walked in, and pulled them out in the hallway for about 3 minutes.
They came walking back in, thanked my sister profusely, and told me that we were going to work together to beat this.
Denial comes in all stages.
14 months of chemo, and 39 trips to the hospital, and I can tell you, there were some who denied repeatedly, even when the children passed that they were even sick.
The “pit bull” piece of the story is to invoke outrage. These parents didn’t have a clue. And frankly, they probably haven’t accepted that their son is dead yet. And when they do, the self-loathing that will come will be much worse than ANY condemnation you can give them. The police are piling on.
The son should have been taken by child protective services to the hospital and they should have been faced with the reality of what they were doing. But, since that didn’t happen, then they shouldn’t be made to suffer man-made pain since the pain and grief they’ve already brought to themselves is probably going to kill both of them.
“DOES not cost the millions some of you clowns on here have implied”
Do you know the treatment plan for Hodgekins disease?
Do you know the medication costs?
Do you know the hospiatlization costs?
Do you have a clue what you’re talking about?
Methyltrexate, one of the better treatment drugs for lymphomas, $10,000 per IV bag.
Vinchristine (I believe that’s how it’s spelled), single dose, $22,000.
Now, tell me that the costs aren’t astronomical.
You’re riled up because of the stupid dog comment that the reporter threw in to inflame passions. You got sucked in by a reporter instead of basing your reasoning on something simple we like to call FACTS.
My posts are vile? I disagree. The truth hurts.
I didnt say that some people are worth more than others, I said that some people are much more deserving, or worthy of being treated by competent medical professionals than others.
If I work my whole life in my own business and my family has no insurance, but has plenty of money, who is more deserving of me saving their life with my very hard earned dollars when faced with that choice? An insuranceless, faceless, off the street peasant? Or someone in my own family?
But that is different you say? Well, now, put yourself in the shoes of the Doctor. He has a decision to make on who he will treat because he only has two hands. A person who he knows to be, via whatever mechanism, a good “risk”, or someone who isn’t. Doctors are smarter than you think, they can assess a patient in seconds.
Who will the taxpayer-funded government agent save in a calamity? An innocent bystander or the high ranking politician? Who is more valuable? Is one person’s life more valuable than the next? Society has established that the answer is YES, overwhelmingly YES.
Your tax dollars are used, everyday, to affect the lives of people that are “selected” by the government to be saved. They are used everyday to destroy lives of others that are “selected”. The people doing the selecting may be someone that YOU support because you do not realize that the choice you made empowered a dirty, stinky, politician to use MY money as he or SHE sees fit.
Don’t blame it on an ignorant voting public (or thank them, as the case may be for you, PoliticalMom), people just have become so used to giving away the fruit of our labor to horrifying politicians that we’ve become sheeple.
Feel free to flame away, it wont change a thing. You will still be wrong.
I hate to see the suffering of any child, regardless of his or her station in life. Unfortunately, the reality of life is dictated by the evil politicians that are selected/elected by another group of Godless people that vote them in.
THEY, not the Bible, will dictate who is better. It is done every single day by the scum that we have elected.
I appreciate your posts.
Well, isn’t that special for you. It did for me...the very best Hospital in state of Texas, MD Andersen. (BTW, a great hospital).
Were you insured?
That may explain it.
When the Doctors and Hospitals know you, personally, know your family and know your financial situation, it DOES have an affect on the billing. Sorry, another fact of life.
Gee, most gall bladder surgery that I know is outpatient. And a Hospital bed in any hospital in the country? About $5K a day....just for the bed. Hmmm.
Of course it didn’t cost you that much when someone else is footing your tab. You can thank me later.
well, “we” didn’t elect them. “They” did. LOL. And that’s why it’s soooo frustrating. The boneheads elected the guy who’s going to give them the candy and icecream - like a bunch of little kids “me, me, me, me.” Meanwhile, little do they know.
Of course I have insurance. I wouldn’t be without it. I retired from the university and they have a retirement plan. I’m sorry if you aren’t covered. They do, but shouldn’t, charge people who don’t have insurance any more than insurance pays for.
I had complications with my surgery and I have diabetes and am on dialysis so there were reasons they kept me in. I thank God I am covered because my health problems have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Blessings, Mary
And I’m also sorry that you seem to be so bitter. I worked for 28 years to get what I have now.
I’m riled up because an innocent child is dead. As for your information, Hodgkins is one of the most cost-effective cancers to treat and doesn’t cost anything as you have implied. Actually, it is YOU who have no idea what you are talking about.
Incidentally, this story was reported a year ago and because it’s a local situation, I believe I have enough facts to make some fairly accurate assessments. The reporter only reported facts provided by the prosecutor’s office and one of my old chums works there (for whatever it’s worth).
And even my mother’s cancer didn’t cost MILLIONS to treat and she went through months of chemo and radiation. In fact, she was dx with a second cancer two years later and the TWO cancers together didn’t even cost near the numbers you are portraying.
Talk about clueless. See what happens when you try to buffalo people who actually have REAL life experiences. Go away please and waste no more of my time.
Read your later post before your earlier. Sorry you had cancer. You don’t say what kind or where you received your treatments. I’m sorry but I don’t believe your costs. Willing to blank out personal info and post the bill on here?
My mom had cancer TWICE - treated at the Cleveland Clinic - went through radiation treatments, surgeries, and chemo for months and months. She also had complications and had to remain hospitalized longer than most patients in both cases.
The total of the treatments for both didn’t even come close to millions. Meanwhile, she did have a $12,000 PET scan.
I think you are exaggerating because you are anonymous and it’s easy to “fib” on line.
Show the bill and I’ll believe it.
Oh, and p.s. you apparently didn’t read the part about the parents being dope-heads and not putting their children in school and how their relatives begged them to let THEM take the kid to the doc. Nope, they were monsters, not just dummies. If they knew enough to treat the dog, they knew to take the kid in.
Fear? You mean like fear their kid might die? Unreal, Eva.
Mary,
Good for you, really.
I’m bitter because you questioned me about my $12K figure that I quoted for my 3 hours hospital visit, citing that your 4 day stay didn’t cost that much and adding, “Hmmmm.”
It DID cost that much and more, it just didn’t cost YOU.
Blessings!
Instead of demanding them showing the bill, show your Mother’s. I suspect your Mom was covered by insurance.
My Dad had esophagus cancer...retired military (flag officer). The treatment lasted several years and was over, you guessed it, a million bucks.
Multiple surgeries, chemo, and he finally succombed to it.
I remember sitting with my Sisters and adding up the drug costs alone...over $200K.
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