Parents Indicted In 8-Year-Old Boy's Cancer Death

[OhioChick]

POSTED: 6:57 pm EDT March 11, 2009
UPDATED: 7:19 pm EDT March 11, 2009

CLEVELAND -- The parents of an 8-year-old Ohio boy who died from Hodgkin's lymphoma have been indicted on charges they denied him medical treatment.

Investigators say that while Willie Robinson was suffering, his parents, who claimed they didn't have much money, paid $87 to have a pit bull treated for fleas.

A Cleveland grand jury on Wednesday indicated William Robinson Sr. and Monica Hussing on charges of involuntary manslaughter, child endangering and felonious assault.

The boy collapsed at his Cleveland home last March and was pronounced dead less than an hour later.

A coroner ruled the death a homicide and said Willie was the victim of medical neglect.

A message seeking comment was left after business hours for an attorney who has represented the parents.

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/18910415/detail.html

That poor boy. :cry:

[MadMaddie]

1. The Parents are stupid and should be prosecuted

What are the odds they didn't have the money or insurance for treatment?

[Critters2]

49. In this country, I'd say the odds are pretty damn good. nt

[Midlodemocrat]

2. Not judging because I would move Heaven and Earth to save one of mine

but an $87 vet bill is far more doable in some instances than the $125,000 co-pay my brother paid when his wife had cancer. And we have just about the best insurance on the planet through our company.

I doubt seriously that they chose the dog over their child.

[OhioChick]

5. I doubt they chose the dog over their child, either.

The story was on the local news and the couple stated that they had absolutely no money to have their child treated.....and quite a few instances began coming into play...such as money they had to get their dog treated for fleas. (That's why I put that in bold....guess you'd have to hear the news to grasp it completely)

[Midlodemocrat]

8. No, I got what you said and meant.

It's heartbreaking. But somehow I will always come down on the side of the parent loving their child. (and I know you would, too. I've seen enough of your posts. )

Frankly, I can't imagine being in that situation. We have fantastic health insurance between the two of us, but Mr. is almost at his lifetime max. Not sure what we will do when we get there. I only know I wouldn't let money stand in the way of his treatment.

[OhioChick]

13. It is sad....

I have a chronically ill child and would do whatever I had to, to make sure he got the treatment he needed.

I'm sorry to hear that you're almost at your lifetime max. What do "they" expect from us once we get there? It's frightening.

[Midlodemocrat]

17. We'll be okay. His lifetime is $1million, but he hasn't

touched mine. Or so I hope.

I didn't know you had a sick child. I hope it's not that serious. :hug:

[OhioChick]

23. 1 Million is a drop in the bucket

When it comes to health care these days, isn't it?

My kid is hanging in there and has been for years now. He sees multiple physicians on a regular basis, nothing life-threatening, but I think he'll live a lifetime in chronic pain. :(

I'm thrilled that this stem cell bill has been signed. It offers much hope to the many out there living with disease and awful pain-related conditions. :hug:

[Midlodemocrat]

32. I know. Who would have thought we would be talking numbers like

that in such a cavalier manner?

I wish you and your boy well. I am shockingly fortunate in that my three are healthy, but after what my beloved went through, I'm not ruling anything out.

Funny how it makes a person more suspicious, more anxious, more worried.

I'm sure you know what I am talking about.

[OhioChick]

39. Thanks for your thoughts...

It's a shame that health care (even basic) has come to this. (lack of)

I do know what you mean about being worried and emotional. Not a day goes by that I don't think about my son laying his head in my lap night after night at 3 a.m. crying and said that he didn't want to live any longer. This, while on morphine. I'm scared to death of that happening again at any time.

It sounds like you know all too well the uncertainties, yourself. I wish both you and your husband/SO the very best. Take Care.

[Midlodemocrat]

44. Please, PM me if you ever need to talk and I will send you my

phone number.

A lot of the time just having someone listen matters and I would be more than happy to do that for youl.

[OhioChick]

50. Thank you for that.

You brought tears to my eyes. The same goes for you if you ever need an ear or shoulder. :hug:

[Midlodemocrat]

54. I mean it. Before I raised my children

I was a child/adolescent therapist. regardless of the bullshit I post here, I *am* qualified.

[OhioChick]

58. I truly do believe that you're qualified.

I may take you up on your offer in the future. Thanks, again.

[Rage for Order]

7. I'm with you

I would need a lot more information that what was provided before I could have an informed opinion. If there was evidence that the parents knew he had cancer and neglected to ever get treatment for him, that's one thing. But if they're upset because the parents didn't spend every single penny they had, or could borrow, on his treatment then it's obviously a much different situation.

[flvegan]

10. Agreed. But that angle isn't attention grabbing news.

[Hannah Bell]

26. it also would diminish the scapegoat value.

the people who profit from the f---ed system have to deflect blame elsewhere.

[mykpart]

18. Perhaps they had the dog treated for fleas so that

the little boy could be around it and not get fleas himself. Had they not treated the dog and the child got fleas, someone would have charged them with neglect. It's easier to blame parents than to fix the healthcare system. This is like being angry because a welfare mom owns a TV.

[Midlodemocrat]

34. Did you read my post? I'm guessing not.

[mykpart]

65. Please tell me what I have done to offend you.

And to which of your posts do you refer?

[DeepBlueC]

33. I was wondering where cancer treatments are to be had for $87

Lots of people will be on their way there right now. Just to agree that that throwaway line does not say much about the story. I'm inclined to pity the parents who felt that they had no options at all for their child ... yet I am sure that it happens.

[firedupdem]

3. okay...maybe I'm slow...can't tell if they knew he had cancer, or

he just collapsed and then they found neglect and cancer. :shrug:

[OhioChick]

6. According to the local news....

The parents knew that he had Hodgkin's lymphoma and denied him treatment.

[firedupdem]

9. Sad, sad, sad...

:cry:

[Hannah Bell]

27. a price tag in the hundreds of thousands is what denied him treatment.

but they prosecute the parents instead of the profiteers.

[OhioChick]

30. See post #29...Found something a bit more up-dated. n/t

[Hannah Bell]

40. i have no knowledge of the family's personal situation, & don't trust reporting these days.

the one thing i know for sure is, i've gone though long periods when i couldn't afford health insurance, & my personal plan if i got some life-threatening disease was to go into the mountains & freeze or starve so i'd still be able to leave something to my family & wouldn't have to be a "charity case".

the system is wrong. the system is damaging. the system is unhealthy & inhuman.

[OhioChick]

41. "the system is wrong. the system is damaging. the system is unhealthy & inhuman."

I agree with you 100% and something needs to be done about it.

[Mind_your_head]

4. Bring out your hankie.....and be ready to wring it out OFTEN......

Because there are tens of thousands of children who don't have medical insurance RIGHT THIS VERY MOMENT!

Their parents are poor, scared, "hoping for the best" (which doesn't always happen).

FAITH needs some help from people with "real skin on" sometimes (that would be 'you' and 'me')

Peace,
M_Y_H

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

12. Unless their state is completely stupid they should be eligible for medicaid. n/t

[Mind_your_head]

15. How much longer do you thing medicaid will be around?

AND how much has it been "promoted" to the poor that they might well be ENTITLED to it?

I'd bet MANY poor don't even know it EXISTS/IS AVAILABLE to them ~ or what it is!

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

31. I don't accept ignorance as an excuse in this case.

If they weren't eligible that's something else, but ignorance isn't an excuse.

[Mind_your_head]

43. YOU might not be willing to accept that......but sometimes "that IS the case" n/t

edit: people are SCARED, CONFUSED, don't know who to trust or "which way to run".....you can't deny that. And there is always that "poor boy (girl?) who suffers b/c WE, as a country can't get our sh*t together and care for and direct the "least of our brothers/sisters to the help that they need and deserve (and WE, as a NATION can and will pay for!)

Lucky to Live in the
"Greatest Nation on Earth" (and hope to keep proving it so),
M_Y_H

[wickerwoman]

77. But who is the kids' doctor

that would let this family walk out of his office without telling them about medicaid (and/or any other payment options). When they offered treatment and the parents said they couldn't afford it, it should have triggered someone in that office to start educating/advocating for the parents somewhere.

[LisaL]

79. You are assuming the kid has ever been to the doctor.

[KamaAina]

35. Isn't this why we fought so hard for S-CHIP?

:shrug:

[crim son]

11. This makes me physically ill.

The poor little fellow. How could they have watched him sicken and die? How?

[varkam]

14. What is the difference between this and refusing to prosecute for religious beliefs?

[rocktivity]

16. For religious reasons?

:crazy:
rocktivity

[LisaL]

19. I sincerely doubt it.

:eyes:

[ulysses]

20. peace, Willie

from a fellow Hodgkin's alum.

[fed_up_mother]

21. What a travesty. That poor little boy. :(

[Lyric]

22. Would that $87 have paid for his treatment?

I'm not saying that they weren't negligent; there ARE other avenues for people who can't pay for children's cancer care--St. Jude's comes to mind first. Obviously they should have been pursuing those avenues. But why crucify them over easing the suffering of the dog when that amount of money wouldn't have made a bit of difference to the kid?

If we're going to criticize, then let's at least do so in an intelligent way, ya know? If someone told me that I had to pay $100,000 in order to keep LyricKid from a terrible death, I'd be on every TV station and internet blog that I could get to, trying to raise the money, but I'd also keep buying pet food and flea meds, and I'd expect that reasonable people would have sense enough to understand that such (relatively) small purchases aren't really relevant to LyricKid's treatment.

I still can't believe that they didn't think to contact the news media, or St. Jude's, or the blogosphere, or ANYONE. Hell, they could have written a simple LTTE and probably had a dozen businesses respond with help offers in just a day or two. THAT is the tragedy--not the flea medicine for the dog.

[Canuckistanian]

24. This wouldn't have happened in Canada

Unless this was a case of fundie "let God decide to cure him" thinking, the boy would have been diagnosed and treated as soon as problems were detected. The prescription drugs would have been expensive, but the parents wouldn't have to think about mortgaging their home to provide them.

This is what I don't get about Americans. These types of stories seem to happen all the time, yet there is no popular movement to change this inhumane system. I thought that MM's SicKO would have triggered a popular revolt, but no....

And the pitbull angle is TOTALLY irrelevant. People can always afford $87, but can they afford to destroy their whole way of life for a HUMAN medical problem? The parents may not have made the best decisions, but then they had very few options to make the RIGHT decision.

Ah, I give up.

[grace0418]

66. I'm amazed at how many people, even people who are otherwise very progressive,

feel that universal healthcare would never work in America. I don't know why. They hear one story about someone in Canada not being able to get in to see a doctor and that convinces them the idea would never work.

[Transmorgify]

81. ---

[JanMichael]

25. Oh, what a dumb fuck stupid ass motherfucking story

the person who should be pitied here is the reporter who wrote this shit.

Let's be very fucking clear about this:

87 bucks wouldn't have bought that kid toilet paper and a fucking goddamned bayer aspirin at the hospital.

So they got the family mutt treated for fleas while they couldn't afford thousands of dollars that their goddamned insurance co. and doctors were demanding for treatment????

So, now their life is under review because they are probably lower middle class.

Fucking groovy.

What an idiot fucking country we live in.

[leftyclimber]

28. Last I checked, you couldn't fix cancer for 87 bucks.

Why did I move back from Canada? Why? Why? :banghead:

[OhioChick]

29. Cleveland couple charged in death of son denied cancer care (UPDATED)

This is a more telling version of what happened (Although on our local news, it was stated that the parents did indeed know their child had cancer)

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.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/03/cleveland_couple_charged_in_de.html

[JanMichael]

36. Still a pathetic dumb motherfucking retarded story

I don't give a flying fucking rat's ass how this is told.

this shit pisses me off to no goddamned end.

People are fucking AFRAID to go to the motherfucking human doctors to the fucking point their KID dies.

[OhioChick]

37. I see your point, however we do have Medicaid here. n/t

[JanMichael]

45. Yeah, and the hoops are the exact same as

taking the dog to the fucking vet.

Spare the fuck out of me. Please. Get a damned grip.

Apples to oranges.

[OhioChick]

48. My nephew is on Medicaid. It is available.....for now, anyway. n/t

[JanMichael]

51. Look. I am sorry for the child. You don't get this.

Who went through their checkbook?

Who found that charge?

Do you think it's worthy of noting in fucking NEWS article?

The NEWS is that parents can't/won't treat their kids....not that there was an 87 dollar charge for something UNRELATED.

[TahitiNut]

38. It's too bad the kid didn't have fleas instead.

:shrug:





:hide:

[mzmolly]

42. Here is a bit more on the story.

http://www.chroniclet.com/2008/08/30/officials-why-did-parents-let-their-son-die-from-cancer_122/

Medical neglect is defined by the Department of Health and Human Services as “failure by the caregiver to provide for the appropriate health care of the child although financially able to do so, or offered financial or other means to do so.”

Trumbull County Children Services worked with Willie’s family to get him health care when they lived in Warren, north of Youngstown. The agency got involved after receiving a phone call about Willie in July 2007.

The boy wasn’t attending school and his health, along with the family’s lack of medical benefits, were a concern, said Marcia Tiger, executive director of Trumbull County Children Services.

A case worker visited them at least monthly and pushed the parents to do a medical follow-up on his swollen neck, obtain medical coverage and get him enrolled in school.


:(

[OhioChick]

46. Thanks....heartbreaking.

:(

[JanMichael]

47. Yes, it is heartbreaking

but what the HELL did it have to do with the fucking vet bill???

[mzmolly]

52. The implication was that the family cared more about their dog.

Of course the vet bill was an absurd way to attempt to prove such an assertion, I agree.

[JanMichael]

53. And DUers fell for that "implication."

lock stock and goddamned barrel.

This story is propaganda, pure and goddamned simple.

[Chan790]

61. Nothing...

it's bad journalism, pure and simple.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

59. Where WAS that case worker?

"... pushed the parents to do a medical follow-up on his swollen neck ...."?????

WTF?

The case worker SAW that the child was sick and the parents weren't doing anything - so why wasn't that child removed from the home?

THAT's the story - not that fucking vet bill, which is just meaningless in this context. The case worker HELPED KILL THAT BOY.

Where were his teachers? Did he go to school? Didn't someone see that something was obviously wrong with the child?

And the adults said and did nothing, so the boy died.

Everyone failed that little boy. There are a whole bunch of other names that should be on that homicide indictment.

Swine, all of them.

[truedelphi]

67. yes, what about the social worker.

Parents can be in over their heads at any given moment.

[LisaL]

69. The article says the boy was not attending school.

[Fleshdancer]

55. seems odd to move this from GD to the Lounge

:shrug:

[OhioChick]

56. I wondered that, myself.

:shrug:

[pinto]

62. We are moving this to the Ohio forum at your request. Thanks for your understanding.

:hi:

[OhioChick]

63. Thank You.

:hi:

[LisaL]

72. And it didn't stay in GD why exactly?

Sick child dying, parents claiming they had no money to pay for his care, case worker involved but the children not removed from the home, parents now indicted-not good enough to discuss in GD?
Really?

[leftyclimber]

57. Me, three. nt

[ChromeFoundry]

60. Yeah, quite odd...

must have something to do with being desensitized to children dying, by prime time television. No offense to the Lounge, but seems like a rather inappropriate move.

[LisaL]

74. I am surprised it wasn't moved to the pet forum. That pitbull

did have fleas after all.
:sarcasm:

[flvegan]

64. GD to the Lounge to Ohio. That trifecta has to be worth $350.

$2 well invested.

[BuyingThyme]

68. It's all about Ohio, man.

[LisaL]

70. Yet a whole bunch of threads on Bristol Palin not getting married

stay on in GD. I guess that is a nationwide problem.

[Hannah Bell]

71. why is this story inappropriate for gd?

[LisaL]

73. Boggles my mind as well.

Sick child dying-no good for GD.
Bristol Palin not getting married-worthy of several threads.
WTF?

[Hannah Bell]

76. thanks for the reminder. ugh.

[ChromeFoundry]

80. Re: Boggles my mind as well.

and that- "Ten Years Later And An Erection Still....Cost $8.00", post is still a Full-Go on the first page too!

[FloridaJudy]

75. Maybe the parents were negligent

But if the dog has a bad case of fleas, it's not just the dog's problem. The whole family's going to get flea-bit, including the sickly child. And it doesn't help much to keep the dog outside - those critters can hitch a ride inside on shoes and clothing.

So while the parents might be feckless losers who care more about their dog than their kid, until all the facts are in, we shouldn't judge.

[eridani]

78. This could be like the homeless guy who took the cell phone shot of Obama

The reasoning seems to be that if you don't have $2000 for first and last month's rent plus deposit, you should not get a cell phone with prepaid minutes. I'm suspecting that coming up with $87 dollars is much easier than coming up with thousands for chemo copay.

[Transmorgify]

82. "Cloward-Piven Strategy"

Google it