# 15 year old boy with cerebral palsy dies; weighed 23 pounds **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 12, 2004, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-year-old-boy-with-cerebral-palsy-dies-weighed-23-pounds/233952 "2004-03-12T19:32:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-year-old-boy-with-cerebral-palsy-dies-weighed-23-pounds/233952/1 "2004-03-12T19:32:30Z")
I am so disturbed right now, I can’t even come up with a proper pitting. [Link](http://famulus.msnbc.com/famulusgen/ap03-11-211152.asp?t=apnew&vts=31220041046) ---
**Author:** ![Lando\_Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f17d59/32.png) [@Lando\_Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lando_Griffin)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-year-old-boy-with-cerebral-palsy-dies-weighed-23-pounds/233952/2 "2004-03-12T20:09:02Z")
I read this in the Chicago Tribune a few minutes ago, and was just coming in here to post this. Christ, stories like this always make me sick beyond words. > [@](#): > > …charged with **involuntary manslaughter** … which carries a sentence of **3 to 14** years in prison. (bolding mine) INVOLUNTARY?!?! There is no fucking way that this could be involuntary. There is no possible way to _accidentally_ allow the child to waste away to **23 pounds**. 3 to 14 years is nowhere near a fitting punishment for this bitch. She should be locked in a dog cage and left to waste away. People should line up, taunt her and throw rocks at her every day until she finally dies. (I’m not linking to the online Trubune article because it requires registration.) ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-year-old-boy-with-cerebral-palsy-dies-weighed-23-pounds/233952/3 "2004-03-12T20:43:35Z")
Here’s another little gem: > [@](#): > > Five of the six children — two boys and four girls — occasionally fed the victim, but they did not tell teachers or neighbors of the conditions in the home, according to Pack. Can you imagine how fucked up those kids are going to be? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-year-old-boy-with-cerebral-palsy-dies-weighed-23-pounds/233952/4 "2004-03-12T21:24:57Z")
Video clip here: [http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/031204\_ns\_crystallake.html](http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/031204_ns_crystallake.html). Nothing from inside the home, which is probably a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-year-old-boy-with-cerebral-palsy-dies-weighed-23-pounds/233952/5 "2004-03-13T15:24:39Z")
It’s things like this that make me believe in karma and reincarnation. There HAS to be some cosmic justice for this horrible bitch, or the universe makes no sense. I can’t even imagine how a 15 year old boy could get down to 23 pounds. The mind boggles. ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-year-old-boy-with-cerebral-palsy-dies-weighed-23-pounds/233952/6 "2004-03-13T21:12:37Z")
Wha- …? Wh- … what? 23 pounds? How can that BE? Jesus christ. ---
**Author:** ![Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bites_when_provoked/32/18073_2.png) [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bites_When_Provoked)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-year-old-boy-with-cerebral-palsy-dies-weighed-23-pounds/233952/7 "2004-03-14T02:18:20Z")
Before anyone reads this and gets riled, I know this will be an unpopular view but I’m NOT excusing what’s happened. Please don’t think I am. When I first read that report I thought ‘You mongrel bitch - how could you’. Watching the news report though… now I’m honestly not sure. Apparenlty only a few months ago, the house was clean and in good repair, and all the kids were healthy. Then suddenly the mother takes out a restraining order on her husband, and the house goes to hell, and she stops feeding her disabled son properly. She has to have had some kind of mental breakdown, there’s nothing else that makes sense. To have maintained a clean home and six children (one significantly disabled) for as long as 17 years and then within a matter of months have a home that’s - according to the report - got animal and human fecal matter on the floor, and can’t even be walked in properly… no, I don’t think that’s the actions of a murderer. I think that’s the actions of someone who’s had a complete breakdown and nobody - not even her 17 year old child who (I’m sorry - I’m again not going to make friends here) is old enough to know that this is all wrong and screwy and that Mother NEEDS help, alerts anyone. And I don’t mean alerting ‘The Authorities’ (any kid would feel disloyal doing that), I mean family or friends. Does anyone think that if her friends and family had known what was going on, that something wouldn’t have been done? It’s all gone to hell in the space of a few short months… after 17 years of being a good mom with a clean home. That’s no time at all, really. It just sets off all kind of warning bells. Even her ex-husband, against whom she took out a restraining order, says she was a good mother. Given the circumstances, I don’t think he’s obliged to say anything positive about her, but he seems to find it all incomprehensible. He didn’t say ‘Yeah, while I was with her I kept her on the straight and narrow’ or anything to that effect. From the facts as presented, and regardless of the disgust I feel at what’s happened, I just can’t see her as a cold-blooded killer. A single mother, caring for six children including one which needs an incredible amount of attention, and a big house to maintain. Even her Ex says she’s a great mom, better than most. No, I can’t see ‘murderous bitch’. But I can see a woman who finally snapped under the pressure and had no support network to make sure she got treatment before or after she just gave up and let everything go to hell around her. ---
**Author:** ![SweetLucy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@SweetLucy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SweetLucy)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-year-old-boy-with-cerebral-palsy-dies-weighed-23-pounds/233952/8 "2004-03-14T02:39:38Z")
> [@Khiadra](#): > > No, I can’t see ‘murderous bitch’. But I can see a woman who finally snapped under the pressure and had no support network to make sure she got treatment before or after she just gave up and let everything go to hell around her. I agree with you. I’ve had several friends who provide full time care for disabled family members- kids, parents, or whoever- and many of them are totally on their own. I’ve helped them out best I can. The divorce rate for parents of handicapped and/or chronically ill kids is sickening, so one parent usually ends up raising the child alone. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-year-old-boy-with-cerebral-palsy-dies-weighed-23-pounds/233952/9 "2004-03-14T02:39:47Z")
**Khiadra** , I actually do pretty much agree with you - when I watched the interview with her ex-husband, (especially after it was revealed that she’d filed a restraining order against him), and he staunchly defended her, it seemed highly likely to me that the woman had just fallen apart completely. And I can’t say I’d blame her - 6 kids, one seriously disabled and a divorce to tend with? I pretty much fell apart and my situation wasn’t nearly so difficult. That said, it still breaks my heart, and I can’t even bring myself to try to comprehend it. The news has been particularly heart wrenching this week, especially where children are involved. I just don’t know sometimes… At any rate, I learned the hard way (the very, very hard way) that things are _not_ always as they appear, and the media definitely does not always report things from as objective a standpoint as they would like to claim. Ever since I came across the lesson, I vowed to try very hard not to draw conclusions about someone/something unless I knew the full story. Which, sad to say, we rarely ever do.