Starvation, dehydration contributed to death of disabled child

[KamaAina]

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/08/coroner_starvation_dehydration.html

Starvation and dehydration factored into the recent death of 9-year-old Harrisburg resident Jarrod Tutko Jr., Dauphin County Coroner Graham Hetrick said Tuesday afternoon.

Still, Hetrick said he isn't ready to rule the boy's unusual death a homicide, just after he held a news conference in Harrisburg to discuss an unrelated shooting death that occurred early Tuesday morning in Harrisburg. ...

"The conditions of the house, and the condition of the children in this case, were horrendous," Hetrick said. "I've been a coroner for a long, long, long time. I have not seen this ... Well, I have seen it, but it's only rare. Nine years old, and I'm not going to release the weight at this time. But the weight was phenomenally low. He was dehydrated. He had nutrition starvation."

Police found Tutko Jr., who suffered from Fragile X syndrome, dead in the Green Street house, after his mother, Kimberly Tutko, called the authorities Aug. 1.

This is the twentieth such case so far this year that we know about. In fact, we hold an annual vigil each March to commemorate the lives of disabled people who were killed by their family members or caregivers.

[Louisiana1976]

1. That child's parents should be charged with murder and sentenced to prison for a long, long

time. They should also be sterilized so they can't have any more kids.

[loyalsister]

2. But...

think of the stress of the parents. Unfortunately, I expect to see more people empathizing with the parents than expressing outrage that this happened.
The twentieth case and many of the few people who are aware have more sympathy for the parents than for the victim. This is why some of us find the wrongful birth suits, and categorization of continuing a pregnancy when the fetus has the genetic marker for DS disturbing.

Thanks for posting. We need to talk about this more.

[jwirr]

3. I am the parent of a child who has developmental disabilities and seizures as well as digestive

disorders. I am not empathizing with the parents.

However, I am wondering if this is like the 15 year old DD child who died from starvation (weighing only 15 pounds) in Janesville Wisconsin when Tommy Thompson was governor? In that case the social workers and doctors were as much to blame as the developmentally disabled parent. They could have had a feeding tube placed in the child's stomach like the one that we use with my daughter. Terri has had a tube in for many years now and went from 50 pounds to 85 now. She cannot swallow food and needed to get nutrition through the tube. She is very healthy now. In Wisconsin they blamed to parent until some of us who had children like the child started calling them on their responsibility to their client. The doctor never answered us.

The reason that I do not think they are like the child I mentioned is because of the statement regarding all the children being in poor condition. If all the children are underfed then this is not like the Wisconsin case.