Mom Accused of Performing Surgery on Girl

[Catherine Vincent]

Mom accused of performing surgery on child
Associated Press

ABILENE — A woman who may have been involved with a religious sect is accused of performing surgery on her 7-year-old daughter, who later died.

Deziree Kay Gideon was arrested last week on an outstanding Callahan County warrant after she was found in Young County, about 90 miles northeast of Abilene, said Shane Deel, the Callahan County attorney. Gideon, 35, remains jailed in lieu of $75,000 bail.

Gideon was indicted in May on a charge of injury to a child, but the indictment was not made public until she was found and arrested. She faces a maximum punishment of life in prison if convicted.

According to the Callahan County indictment, Gideon cut her daughter with a scalpel and stabbed her with a needle in 2003, then failed to get medical care and withheld information from doctors trying to treat the girl.

Gideon was trying to remove an infection from the child's leg, Deel said. The girl later died at a hospital.

more......

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3282849

[fooj]

1. OMG!

:cry:

[jeanarrett]

2. $75,000 bail!?

People have been held for lots more on lesser crimes!

[MissMarple]

3. Maybe she can't come up with $75,000 for bail.

If so, then she is stuck.

[Megahurtz]

16. You're not kidding. n/t

[OfireitupO]

4. Cut her daughter with a scalpel and stabbed with a needle?

She shouldnt even have bail, this is close to murder.


Religious folk always get off easy, just like that stupid sect that picks rattlesnakes out of bags to see if they are the chosen ones of jesus, and if not they get bitten and die.

She'll get 5 years in jail at most

I wonder where the father was in this case?

[MountainLaurel]

8. Considering that the girl died

Why isn't this woman being charged with murder?

[BrightKnight]

14. manslaughter - n/t

[DemBones DemBones]

31. I've actually known snake handlers and I support their right

to practice their religion as they choose, risks and all. Everyone takes some risks in life, usually for less noble reasons.

No one is required to handle snakes, only adults are allowed to, and they do it, as I understand it, to show their faith and to show that the Holy Spirit will protect them. They are only supposed to "take up serpents" when the Spirit is upon them and those who are bitten say that they misread the signs. This is all based on verses in the Bible, verses that some Pentecostal Christians focused in on and that eventually splintered them off into small sects, a unique American form of Christianity.

Socioeconomic prejudices work against them, the snake handling sects being made up of poor whites struggling to survive in Appalachia. If they were better off they'd be left alone, probably get lawyers to successfully argue their right to handle snakes before the Supreme Court.

[Javaman]

5. Land of the stupid!

[Wildewolfe]

6. Look at it again...

You guys need to put that back into perspective.

The child had an infection in her leg. When I was growing up, if you got an infection like that you lanced it (the needle) and if that didn't work you made a small cut to drain the infection out. That's what she was trying to do and to that point there is nothing wrong with it. I've had to do that to myself before, my parents had to do it, I've had to lance things like that on my daughter. If you grew up in the country it's part of the "home medical" training you get just growing up.

Where this woman goes wrong though is failing to get medical care and withholding information from the doctors... THATS the part that's abuse.

[catabryna]

7. Agree with you 100%...

Our family treated boils this way and, I didn't grow up in the country.

[atreides1]

9. I see Insanity is here as well

Once an injury is infected, you don't do surgery. My mother did the same thing for me, but if an infection was there that's where she stopped playing doctor and got us to a real doctor.

I myself have pulled splinters from my own children's finger as well as my own, but if there was already an indication of infection, to the doctor we went.

The problem is we don't know why she failed to get medical care or why she witheld information from the doctors, maybe she just didn't want the girl around anymore?

[Wildewolfe]

15. I'm

not talking about splinters... boils, carbunkles (sp), cuts that became infected... you open them to drain them. That's been the treatment for centuries. I find no fault for the mom in doing that part, at least not as it's described.

Where she fails is not escalating the issue.

The press however is guilty here of sensationalizing the story by stressing portions of the story for effect.

She performed surgery! ... well lancing a boil IS technically surgery.

She stuck her with a needle! ... well that's how you lance a boil.

She cut her with a scalpal! ... well if it's too deep for a needle that would be better than using the heated pocket knife my dad used on me for the same type of infection cleanup 35 years ago.

The story doesn't provide enough detail to be sure of anything, but what they do sensationalize is consistant with standards of self and family care that were prevelant to the entire country at one time and should, in my opinion, still be taught so that people have a basic clue about taking care of themselves in disasters and such.

[nookiemonster]

11. Mom used to give us a drop of turpentine on a teaspoon of sugar

supposedly to prevent worms, I think. Old country remedy.

I definitely didn't want any worms. LOL

Perhaps there is more to this story.

[noamnety]

20. I'm in agreement

Home (minor!) surgery isn't uncommon. I know ex-army guys that are very successful (6 figure incomes) in the DC circle, driving porsches and eating brie, who sew up their own kids rather than take them in for stitches if they know it's a flesh wound. And I'd trust them to sew me up in an emergency.

I don't think lancing an infection is quite on the order of doing a home hysterecetomy.

[lynne]

27. I've been under the parental knife, as well -

- and the needle. I'll never forget my Dad heating a needle and drilling it into the base of my brother's mashed toe. Blood hit the ceiling but it relieved the pressure and he was finally able to go to sleep.

I've was given whiskey with sugar as cough syrup when I was under 5 years old and when I was about 13 I "operated" on my own foot. Took a steak knife and cut out a huge hunk of wood in the ball of my foot. Knew my Mom would insist that I go to the ER with that one and I just didn't want to go.

I think there's more to this story. Maybe the infection came too fast to be recognized as such. Some strains of bacteria can get in a wound and kill you in a few days.

[SoCalDem]

23. Yikes.. I have done "minor surgery" on my sons and myself too

Splinter removal, wound debriding...I have even put in my own stitches..(on my own hand..not my kids)but I always removed stitches when they got stitched up for some bonehead stunt:)

[slackmaster]

28. I've done all of that and more while backpacking

Sometimes you can't get to a doctor and have to take matters into your own hands.

Swiss Army knife, disinfectants, antibiotics, crazy glue, and bandages.

[youspeakmylanguage]

10. She should be charged with manslaughter. (n/t)

[JNelson6563]

12. I think, as usual, the culprit should be subjected to

what they inflicted. Someone with no clue needs to do surgery on this woman. I often wish those who hurt children get back exactly what they have done, just as they did it.

Julie

[1932]

13. A member of the Church of I Don't Have Health Insurance?

[Megahurtz]

17. We may be seeing more of this since

a lot of people cannot afford health insurance.

[Robeson]

26. Ah, but thats what makes us a great country!....

...we have the "freedom" to not provide proper healthcare for all of our citizens...:sarcasm:

[Robeson]

25. That was my thought.

[1932]

30. I still think it's wrong, and criminal and/or insane to cut open your kid

and this women probably needs some time in either a hospital or a jail, but, not having insurance can't help the situation if that, in fact, is part of the situation.

I'll say one more thing: unless she intended to kill her daughter, I don't think she should go to prison for life.

Just the fact that she was "operating" on her to try to heal her suggests that she didn't intend to kill her. No matter how reckless or negligent that is, sometimes I see people go to jail for 10 or 20 years for the coldest of cold-blooded intentional murders, and I don't think it would be fair to put this woman in jail for life -- a punishment that should be reserved for the most intentional and cold-blooded of crimes.

[ConfuZed]

18. WTF! Parents should be allowed to perform surgery on their children

Its no one's business what she does with her own daughter we still have a thing called freedom of religion in this country!











:sarcasm:

[noamnety]

19. Why is religion part of the story?

I hate this style of journalism - "well, we're not going to say there's a connection ... but she ran over 15 school children with a tractor and she's muslim/gay/atheist/black/fundie. You do the math."

If her religion is suspected to be the reason she didn't see a doctor, then the journalist should say so.

If it's not part of the story, then I don't see why it's in there at all. May as well open with "A woman who may have loved fried okra is accused of performing surgery ..."

It just looks like terrible reporting to me.

I'd rather know if the family lacked health insurance, and if that's why she didn't see a doctor.

[Wildewolfe]

21. Agreed...

This is one of the worst examples of deliberate inflamation of content I think I've ever seen.

She "might" have been part of a cult... plus all the apparent technical accuracies used to exagerate the hell out of the story.

I would love to know if she couldn't get health insurance too.

[noamnety]

22. A little from the website of the church in question

When I was asked to attend the UN Millennium Forum in New York in 2000, I met people from many nations and walks of life whose families (children and grandchildren) were still suffering from wars that took place over fifty years ago. They were crying with one voice, "Never again," but their cries were treated as dust from a storm because certain men, led by major religions, think they want more war.

(snip)

Kennedi was born without a thyroid. Her face is grotesquely swollen, sprinkled with red, knotted lumps. What disfigures her features, however, is another congenital condition: hemangiomas, benign tumors made of tangled blood vessels. suspect that Kennedi's troubles have their origins in the Gulf, where served as an Army paratrooper. …he faced a mind-boggling array of environmental hazards. Like an estimated 45,000 of his comrades, he has developed symptoms linked to an elusive affliction known as Gulf War syndrome. Kennedi's dad, Darrell, tested positive for radiation exposure, but unless his testes are dissected no link to her condition can be proved.

(snip)

Depleted Uranium, A Scientific Perspective
An interview with Leuren Moret, geoscientist ...

They also have some excerpts from the Lone Star Iconoclast.

They tie it in with a bunch of prophesies that I don't personally believe in, being an atheist.

But the website certainly gives a clue as to why her possible "connection" to that religion is included. From the article: Gideon may not have been an official member but was associated with the group, Deel said..

Pathetic.

[Patty Diana]

32. The reporter is trying to blame religion and not the true culprit, the

third world type of health care the the USA now has. Only the rich get care....it's a disgrace. These pukes have taken US heathcare back well over 100 years (if you're not rich). We will be seeing lots more of this. Babies being born at home and dying etc etc

[WinkyDink]

24. $$$$

I'd bet no money for a doctor was part of this tragedy.

[AlienGirl]

29. This is horrific

:cry: