Defense doctor in faith-healing case: Every parent sees things differently

OREGON CITY, Ore. - Every parent can see their child’s illness differently, sometimes based on their own personal beliefs, said a doctor who defense attorneys put on the stand Monday in the faith-healing trial of Jeff and Marci Beagley.

The Beagleys, members of the Followers of Christ Church that believes in faith healing over traditional medicine, are on trial in the death of their 16-year-old son, Neil, who died of chronic renal failure in June of 2008. Prosecutors say the Beagleys’ faith-healing approach caused their son to die. They brought in a medical expert last week who testified that any reasonable parent would have taken their sick child to get medical help.

But Dr. Douglas Diekema, an emergency pediatrician said the decision to take a child to see a doctor was not as black and white as the prosecution portrayed.

“The point at which different parents make the decision to see somebody about that (the illness) is again, huge,” said Diekema.

Defense attorneys also made the point that the 16-year-old didn’t want medical treatment because of his faith, and the family respected his wishes. The defense tried to paint a picture that the Beagleys did everything they thought necessary to help save their son.

During Diekema’s testimony, defense attorneys went over Neil’s food log, kept by Marci Beagley, that they said showed Neil was eating things that would be normal for someone not feeling well.

On Friday, Dr. Edward Guillery, a medical expert for the prosecution, said the small amount of food the teenager was eating should have indicated a serious problem to any reasonable parent.

“Sixteen-year-old boys should eat a whole cart of groceries in a week, not little scraps of this and that,” he said on Friday.

The defense, however, made the point that Neil kept telling his parents he “was fine”, and they argued that he may not have lived even if they would have taken him to see a doctor.

“I haven’t heard anything there that would suggest that a reasonable parent would suspect that their child was in imminent danger of dying,” said Diekema. “There is no way that I would guarantee that he would have been alive even with my best efforts and the best efforts of everybody at my hospital.”

Attorneys for the Beagleys also argued that the illness Neil suffered from could have left him completely mobile until the end when his kidneys completely shut down.

“Up to that point you’d feel perfectly fine because your kidney can keep doing its job even though it’s being destroyed slowly,” Diekema said. “Parents don’t have medical degrees and for the most part don’t have medical backgrounds.”

The case continues Tuesday with expected testimony from more medical experts and state workers.