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Here's a real Philadelphia story, via the Sydney Morning Herald.
Starved Disabled Girl Was Failed At Every Turn.
For days before Danieal Kelly died in a fetid, airless room - made stifling hot by a midsummer heat wave - the bedridden teenager begged for something to drink until she could muster only one word: water.
Unable to help herself because of her cerebral palsy, she wasted away from malnutrition and maggot-infested bedsores that ate her flesh. She died alone on a putrid mattress in her mother's home, the floor covered in feces. She was 14 but weighed just 19.05 kg.
The nightmare of forced starvation and infection that killed Danieal while she was under the protection of the [Philadelphia, PA] city's human services agency is documented in a 258-page grand jury report released this week that charges nine people - her parents, four social workers and three family friends - in her ghastly death.
The report describes a mother, Andrea Kelly, who was embarrassed by her disabled daughter and didn't want to touch her, take her out in public, change her nappies or make sure she had enough fluids. It portrays Daniel Kelly, the father who once had custody of Danieal, as having no interest in raising her.
And it accuses the city Department of Human Services of being "uncaring and incompetent."
"It was this indifference that helped kill Danieal Kelly," an angry District Attorney Lynne Abraham said. "How is it possible for this to have happened?"
The report should "outrage the entire Philadelphia community" and bring about "earth-shattering, cataclysmic changes" at the Department of Human Services, Abraham said.
Andrea Kelly, 39, the only defendant charged with murder, was ordered held today without bail. The social workers - suspected of falsifying home visits and progress reports in the case - face charges ranging from child endangerment to involuntary manslaughter. The family friends are accused of lying to the grand jury about the girl's condition before her death . . .[and the story actually gets worse . . . .]
So, you know, really I just have no f*cking comment.
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3 comments:
No blood for hubris:
I have plenty of comments, but they're all unremittingly nasty. Her mother sounds like an idiot, if not a complete fucking monster. But the social workers (I wonder how many are LICSW?) sound like complete criminals. Throw the whole fucking lot in a fetid, airless room for a week or so and get back to me.
democommie
Samsara....
What else can be said?? How cold and detached (especially the mother and father)to neglect their helpless child, in that manner.
Fucking horrible. :( I have nothing else to say. I just read a similar story to this one that happened in florida but luckily, the girl was adopted and has a chance at a normal life.
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