Hope Delozier

A Pennsylvania couple who relied on homeopathy and herbal therapy to treat their daughter’s ear infection have been charged with manslaughter after the condition worsens and the child dies.

The Daily Mail is reporting on Ebed and Christine Delozier who were charged last week with felony counts of involuntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of children in the death of their 18 month-old daughter, Hope.

According to the recently released coroner’s report, Hope died in March of an invasive group A streptococcus bacteria that originated in her left ear. Doctors said if Hope had received simple antibiotics at the time of the original infection, she would be alive today.

However, her parents say they don’t believe in modern medicine and treated the girl with homeopathic and herbal remedies. This position isn't based on religious beliefs, they say, only their own experience and Christine's "research".

Christine, who had been treating Hope with alternatives, claims that on the night of March 23, the child's breathing became so shallow she began giving her CPR. When Hope didn't respond, she rushed her to Guthrie Towanda Memorial Hospital.

A nurse at the hospital said Christine told them that she needed “some help” but made it quite clear that she and her husband were against antibiotics and other chemicals associated with modern medicine.

Even while they worked on the unresponsive child, Mrs. Delozier became upset and said, “You’re putting holes in her” and “you’re putting chemicals in her”.

Ebed and Christine Delozier

Physicians were unable to revive Hope and she was pronounced dead by an emergency room physician.

An autopsy later revealed that the child died of a cerebral abscess and terminal cerebral edema caused by the bacteria. She was also found to be dehydrated and malnourished.

It was determined that her life could have been saved if she had been treated with ordinary antibiotics.

The Delozier’s now claim they would have sought medical care had they known how sick Hope was.

The case of Hope Delozier is troubling on several levels, but most especially on what has become an obsession with “natural cures” rather than “Big Pharma” among young families. Despite repeated studies showing homeopathy and popular herbal remedies to be useless, advocates insist on reading only what is found on pro-alternative websites which are full of misleading and unsubstantiated claims. When confronted with credible facts, many respond with hostility and claim the information is part of a “Big Pharma conspiracy” to rip people off and pollute their bodies with “unnatural” chemicals.

Part of the blame for Hope’s death should also be placed on the purveyors of these false cures whose websites make all kinds of wild claims about the efficacy of their products with nothing more than user “testimonials” to back them up.

We will continue to alert people to the dangers of one of the most popular areas of the New Age – alternative medicine – with the hopes of convincing them that just because it’s natural, doesn’t make it safe.

Unfortunately, these warnings come too late for Hope.

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