AIDS: A mother's denial

[Ausmerican]

Not sure of the details Zep. The JW blood transfusion is the most common one they come across so it's the main one I have heard about.

 

[ChristineR]

The really big guns:

The Evidence that HIV Causes AIDS

and for those of you who have time to read through all sixty-four fascinating pages:

The Relationship Between the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

Duesenberg et al are shredded. In my personal experience everyone I've been able to convince to read through these documents has come away believing that Duesenberg is a nut and HIV causes AIDS. Of coruse I don't have too many conspiracy theorists in my personal circle...

 

[HawkeyeMD]

As far as I know (wife is a neonatal intensive care RN) here in Arizona they can get a fast tracked court order to give a blood transfusion to babies of JW's when it's a life or death situation. Not sure about other types of religious woo but I would think the same applies.

Here in New York it's much the same, regardless of type of woo: a parent does not have the right to refuse emergent care for a child based on religious beliefs, and if a doctor believes the medical decisions being made by the parents are against the best interests of the child, s/he is not only able to but required to call Child Protective Services, the same as if s/he suspects any other kind of abuse.

All this doesn't stop it all from being a huge grey area, of course, because it means judgment calls and legal challenges and courts getting involved and unfortunately often a delay of treatment to the point where it isn't effective. (There was a nationally-publicized case where parents didn't want their child given chemotherapy for Hodgkin's lymphoma, and the courts did eventually hold that the child should be treated, but it was no longer in a timely fashion and I don't know what the eventual outcome of the case was.)

Disclaimer: despite my tag, I'm a med student, not a doctor. However, we've been studying these very cases this semester so I'm familiar with the rulings. The main problem is that doctors are understandably unwilling to put their practices on the line by contradicting parents over most of this crap, like the vaccination beliefs. But it's an impossible situation. I don't think there's yet been a case where a parent who refused a vaccination has sued the pediatrician after the kid gets measles and has serious sequelae, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

Hawkeye

 

[Deetee]

I was thinking about this in regards to another thread when I decided to look up Maggiore's book on Amazon.
I see it that a new edition is being published next fall. It should be interesting what kind of changes are in it since half of her children are no longer "Alive and Well".

Has Christine Maggiore never, ever asked herself: "What if everything you thought you knew about AIDS was wrong?"
Certainly after losing a child to this disease she should have some doubts, but it seems not.

Her web site continues to reinforce her total denial.

(Mar 10)
I would also like you to know that my daughter did not have pneumonia. Her lungs were clear, she was not coughing, choking, or gasping for breath and she never exhibited any sign of oxygen deprivation and never turned blue. Also, her lungs showed no inflammation at autopsy. As you certainly know, pneumonia is defined as inflammation of the lung caused by disease. I mention this because you discuss pneumonia in your remarks as if this applied to her case and all available evidence indicates it does not.

 

[Deetee]

Anyhow, Dr Mohammed Al-Bayati (the "pathologist" who tried to dispute the medical examiner's conclusions that Eliza Jane, Maggiore's daughter, had died of AIDS) has published his own hypothesis on what causes AIDS.

Seems like its all due to corticosteroid use, and nothing to do with HIV.

Did I miss something, or was Maggiore secretly dosing her child with steroids?

 

[ChristineR]

Anyhow, Dr Mohammed Al-Bayati (the "pathologist" who tried to dispute the medical examiner's conclusions that Eliza Jane, Maggiore's daughter, had died of AIDS) has published his own hypothesis on what causes AIDS.

Seems like its all due to corticosteroid use, and nothing to do with HIV.

Did I miss something, or was Maggiore secretly dosing her child with steroids?

Corticosteroids could have been used to reduce inflammation and they certainly do have some serious side effects, including some horrible immune system problems. These are not the steroids that body builders take to bulk up.