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Starved, disabled girl was failed at every turn
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080802/ap_on_re_us/starvation_death_charges ^

Posted on 08/01/2008 7:34:06 PM PDT by Hi Heels

Starved, disabled girl was failed at every turn By KATHY MATHESON, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 2 minutes ago PHILADELPHIA - 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. ADVERTISEMENT 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 42 pounds. The nightmare of forced starvation and infection that killed Danieal while she was under the protection of the 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 diapers or make sure she had enough fluids.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cpswatch; healthcare; philadelphia
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Sometimes you just wonder what people are thinking....
1 posted on 08/01/2008 7:34:06 PM PDT by Hi Heels
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To: Hi Heels
I couldn't finish reading the article.

Good night.

2 posted on 08/01/2008 7:36:57 PM PDT by HoosierHawk
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To: Hi Heels

This is the second article today with this type of abuse.

It reminds me of the story published the other day with the dog nursing the tiger cubs. The zoo keeper said the mother tiger never took care of any of her litters. It was like she had that gene shut off.

I think humans are the same, but I get more disgusted at them because they do have options that tigers don’t.


3 posted on 08/01/2008 7:38:58 PM PDT by autumnraine
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To: Hi Heels

Pretty horrible and depressing for one day. But for the grace of G-d......


4 posted on 08/01/2008 7:45:47 PM PDT by rbg81 (DRAIN THE SWAMP!!)
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To: Hi Heels

OMG. Just horrible.


5 posted on 08/01/2008 7:45:54 PM PDT by LdSentinal
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To: Hi Heels

The mother should be shot allowed to recover and shot again.


6 posted on 08/01/2008 7:45:54 PM PDT by svcw (There is no plan B.)
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To: Hi Heels
Andrea Kelly, 39, the only defendant charged with murder, was ordered held Friday 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.

First Degree Murder seems such an inadequate charge when you read the description of this child's protracted and torturous death. Yet, they will likely all be out on the street in a couple of years, if they serve any jail time at all (except the Mother who, rightfully, looks to be headed away for a few years)

7 posted on 08/01/2008 7:51:38 PM PDT by JimSEA (just another liberal-bashing fearmonger)
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To: svcw
"The mother should be shot allowed to recover and shot again."

No, she should be hogtied, and thrown into her daughter's uncleaned bed and not fed until she dies.

8 posted on 08/01/2008 7:54:40 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Jimmy Carter is the skidmark in the panties of American History)
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To: editor-surveyor
The Democrats own Philly. Obama would fix the problems that caused this......wouldn't he?

[/sarcasm]

9 posted on 08/01/2008 8:00:43 PM PDT by HardStarboard (Take No Prisoners - We're Out O)
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To: Hi Heels

Socialism at it’s best.


10 posted on 08/01/2008 8:05:32 PM PDT by LiberConservative ("Typical" white guy)
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To: Hi Heels

This is so terribly sad. God bless the poor child’s soul.


11 posted on 08/01/2008 8:09:13 PM PDT by Gene Eric
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To: autumnraine

When I worked part time in a church nursery, there was a little girl with cerebral palsy. Later found out she was adopted because the birth mother said no way, Jose, am I dealing with that. Selfish versus the usual unselfish act of adoption, yes, but yet the girl lived, and was living with people who loved her.
The mother in this horror story should have utilized the equivalent of the Baby Moses law. Everyone would have been better off.


12 posted on 08/01/2008 8:12:45 PM PDT by tbw2 (Freeper sci-fi - "Sirat: Through the Fires of Hell" - on amazon.com)
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To: tbw2

“The mother in this horror story should have utilized the equivalent of the Baby Moses law. Everyone would have been better off.”

That’s the first thought that crossed my mind. There are government funded homes for people like this that usually aren’t pretty, but better than what she got at her “mother’s” home. But on second thought, the “mother” may have been dependent on the Social Security check the girl brought in.


13 posted on 08/01/2008 8:27:59 PM PDT by elfman2 (TheRightReasons.net - Reasoning CONSERVATIVES without the kooks.)
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To: Hi Heels
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 diapers or make sure she had enough fluids.

I'm honestly surprised she lived to 14. May these people rot.

14 posted on 08/01/2008 8:28:14 PM PDT by IYAS9YAS
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To: IYAS9YAS
I had a little girl who had cerebral palsy, so this hit pretty close to home. My daughter passed in 1995 and every effort I had went to try and help her. I worked two jobs, we had nurses in the house around the clock, she had every kind of therapy,I battled insurance companys and maxed out two policies when she went to the hospital for the 12th time. And even through all her handicaps and all her medical issues, she brought us so much joy and spark having her here as long as we did. I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

I just don't get it. I know it's hard, there's nothing harder, but maybe it's just like another poster said, a missing gene that simply turns off the mother instinct. But, you'd also have to be missing a couple of other genes, too, the responsibility gene, the compassion gene, intelligence gene..... I couldn't even read the entire story myself. It was just heartbreaking.

15 posted on 08/01/2008 8:34:25 PM PDT by Hi Heels (Now here at the Rock we have two rules. Rule #1 obey all rules. Rule #2 no writing on the walls...)
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To: elfman2

the “mother” may have been dependent on the Social Security check the girl brought in.

That would be the winning answer.


16 posted on 08/01/2008 8:34:48 PM PDT by Dasaji (The U.S.A. is the Land of Opportunity and you've got 50 states to do it in!)
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To: JimSEA
First Degree Murder seems such an inadequate charge when you read the description of this child's protracted and torturous death.

I thought only Nazis were capable of this kind of cruelty.

17 posted on 08/01/2008 8:39:35 PM PDT by dfwgator ( This tag blank until football season.)
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To: Hi Heels

Very Sad.

Social workers involved in this case need to be prosecuted every bit as severely as the mother.


18 posted on 08/01/2008 8:50:52 PM PDT by TASMANIANRED (TAZ:Untamed, Unpredictable, Uninhibited.)
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To: Hi Heels

I can’t read this.....Prayers for this girl. May these monsters rot in h-ll.


19 posted on 08/01/2008 9:06:18 PM PDT by pandoraou812 (Don't play leapfrog with a unicorn! ...........^............)
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To: Hi Heels
There better be a Heaven, for poor things like her. :(

Several years ago there was a case of a girl here in AZ like this, locked and isolated in a cage by her "parents" for all her life.

When a neighbor finally alerted officials, she was rescued. Described as only able to make animal sounds. Never heard what happened to her.

20 posted on 08/01/2008 9:42:53 PM PDT by FlyVet
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