Austin Sprout Died in December After Getting Infection From Ruptured Appendix The "faith healer" parents of an Oregon teenager who died due to a lack of medical care will be required to contact a doctor when any of their other six children are sick for more than one day, according to the terms of their probation. Russel and Brandi Bellew were sentenced to five years of probation on Tuesday after they pleaded guilty to negligent homicide in the death of Brandi's biological son, Austin Sprout, 16. An autopsy found Austin died of an infection caused by a burst appendix. The couple, along with their six surviving children, belongs to the General Assembly and Church of the First Born, which eschews modern medicine. The group takes its belief from a New Testament passage in the Gospel of James that says the sick should be prayed over and anointed with oil, according to Rick Ross, an expert on cults. "They take this verse out of context and take it to mean this is the only thing you can do while sick," Ross said. "In their mind they see it as a choice not between the church and saving the life of their child, they see it as a choice between God and me." Bob Schrank, an attorney for Brandi Bellew, said despite the couple's beliefs, they are "committed to complying with their conditions of probation." In December, Sprout became ill with cold and flu-like symptoms. Instead of getting him medical attention, the couple chose to pray. Sprout died five days before Christmas. "According to the group and its leaders, if someone goes to the doctor for medical care, they have gone against God," said Ross. After an autopsy, the Bellews were arrested in February and were barred from speaking to each other since they were co-defendants in the case, Schrank said. "[Russel] was allowed to come to the home to visit the kids but [Brandi] couldn't be there. The rule was they couldn't have contact," Schrank said. Schrank said the Bellews, who did not offer a statement in court, are "great parents" and "at least 20" people sent letters vouching for them. In August, prosecutors met with members of the Bellews' church to discuss state child neglect laws and to let them know choosing not to seek medical care for a child would not be tolerated, the Eugene Register Guard reported. Prosecutor Erik Hasselman told the newspaper congregants seemed to be receptive. "This is not a denomination that feels that its faith is at odds with the laws of the community," he said. The case is one of many in which parents have been held criminally responsible for neglecting to seek medical attention for their children. Earlier this year, an Oklahoma woman was found guilty of second degree manslaughter and sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison. Prosecutors said Susan Grady, who belongs to the Church of the First Born, chose to treat her 9-year-old son's diabetes complications with prayer. He died days later. Last year, Dale and Shannon Hickman, an Oregon couple who belonged to the church, were sentenced to 75 months in prison after they failed to seek medical care following the birth of their premature son at home. The baby died nine hours later.
Can you really blame them for something that was ultimately not their fault and just happened? A burst appendix is a tough one, it's not exactly visible to the human eye. If he was just experiencing cold and fly-like symptoms, well even I don't go the doctor just because I catch the cold or flu. I stay home and lay in bed, take some Benadryl, etc. I am mixed on the issue of faith healers though because I believe people, including parents should have a right to believe what they want and raise their kids how they want, but when it leads to deaths like these I certainly see where the concern comes from. On the issue of the boy who died from a burst appendix, again that one was not as obvious as say the child with diabetes which they apparently knew about and tried to 'pray' away. I just don't know really, this one is a super fine line. On the one hand I don't want to restrict people's freedom to believe what they want and practice their faith, on the other I don't want to see that same faith cause the death of others. So I don't know...
This is an easy call for me. Parents who neglect to get needed medical care for their children should be prosecuted, and I think these parents got off too easy. An adult who chooses to refuse medical care for religious reasons is within his rights. But parents have a state imposed duty to provide medical care to their children which supercedes any religious beliefs they might have. To give an extreme example, what if a religion taught its adherents to treat a common cold by denying all food and water to the patient?
But the boy only had cold and flu-like symptoms. Tell me, did your parents make sure you went to the doctor every time you had these symptoms? Do you still go to the doctor every time you have these symptoms? A burst appendix is not very easy to detect and it is certainly not the parent's fault that it happened. How do we know they didn't just think he had a cold and tried to pray it away? (And usually after a few days, after some bed rest the cold does normally go away). If the symptoms were more severe then yes I can see why they definitely should have taken him to the doctor, but it only says he had cold and flu-like symptoms. Those aren't usually something you need to go in for unless they persist more than 4-5 days I think. Articles like this never really give us the real details, so I guess we'll never know how severe his symptoms were.
Well we do know that their methods were ineffective. Do you think that they are now smarter since one kid is now dead? Even the Bible says that sick people should go to the doctor. I think that passage in James was inserted as a joke to see if dummies really read the Bible. It's obvious that if they had read the Bible they would have known that a doctor is better than prayer when you get sick.
