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Ah yes, purveyors of Woo this is your fault. This isn’t Big Pharma, this isn’t biased studies, or any of the mendacity that you preach – the death of this child is squarely and completely on you. The CBC reports:
“Criminal charges are pending against a Calgary mother who police allege relied on holistic treatments instead of getting medical help for her seven-year-old son’s strep infection.”
Holistic treatments to treat a bacterial infection? Are you frakking kidding me – how much nonsense did the woo pedlars have to feed this parent to make her eschew effective medical treatment and treat her son with fucking potions and positive energy?
“On the morning of March 2, emergency crews were called to a 17th Avenue S.W. basement suite where a young boy was having a seizure. He was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.”
“An autopsy found the cause of death was a strep infection, which would have been treatable with penicillin.”
What a way to go – from the CDC on strep infection…
“Severe, sometimes life-threatening, GAS disease may occur when bacteria get into parts of the body where bacteria usually are not found, such as the blood, muscle, or the lungs. These infections are termed “invasive GAS disease.” Two of the most severe, but least common, forms of invasive GAS disease are necrotizing fasciitis and Streptococcal Toxic Shock Syndrome. Necrotizing fasciitis (occasionally described by the media as “the flesh-eating bacteria”) destroys muscles, fat, and skin tissue. Streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (STSS), causes blood pressure to drop rapidly and organs (e.g., kidney, liver, lungs) to fail. STSS is not the same as the “toxic shock syndrome” frequently associated with tampon usage. About 20% of patients with necrotizing fasciitis and more than half with STSS die. About 10%-15% of patients with other forms of invasive group A streptococcal disease die.”
Speculation here, but the boy’s organs were being destroyed by the bacteria, he most likely was in severe pain for 10 days.
“Police allege the mother did not take the boy for treatment, giving him holistic remedies instead.”
Holistic fucking remedies? This is why alternative medicine is so dangerous, people die because they believe in weapons-grade bullshit.
“The treatment rendered at home was homeopathic in nature. This would include herbal remedies. The mother refused to take the child to a medical professional. No excuse given — just her belief system,” said Staff Sgt. Mark Cavilla.”
Her belief system? Believing in stupid shit gets people killed(bonus points if you can draw a parallel to religious belief). Holistic alternative medicine ranks high on the list of stupid shit to believe in.
“The boy was bedridden for 10 days prior to his death, police allege. Charges are pending against his 44-year-old mother. Those charges include criminal negligence causing death and failing to provide the necessaries of life.”
I’m waiting for the proud Alternative Medicine Community to stand up and own this child’s death, for teaching a mother not to trust evidence based medicine, for letting a child suffer for 10 days with a curable affliction.
I know what response we’ll get from these charlatans. Frakking Crickets.
For the people who think this stuff works… With many thanks to Cool Hard Logic for such a engaging presentation.
Ah homeopathy, how we’ve missed you here at DWR. It has been at least a year since we excoriated your incredulous claims with the biting scourge of rationality, but let’s refresh our memories and let Cool Hard Logic, with his most apropos music selection, remind us how bugfraking nutz Homeopathy is.
Brilliant. Myles is a fantastic youtuber who is a biochemistry student out of the UK who is currently writing his PhD “Non-Enzymatic Transcription of Nucleic Acids and the Control of Gene Expression using Mutant Riboswitches by Synthetic Guanosine Analogues” (say THAT three times fast) and continually uploads wonderful experiments that entertain and educate and inspire learning (next run to the grocery store, I’m most definitely getting some red cabbage). On top of all that, he debunks asinine claims that can potentially harm society (and you thought I only went after religious nut-bags). Well, I’m running out of parentheses, so without further ado, here’s Myles on the B.S. that is homeopathy.
Homeopathic remedies (also see sugar water) still are ineffective and generally do not work, unless their intended effect is to part foolish people from their money, in that case they are a most excellent product.
“WINNIPEG – Skeptics of homeopathic medicine have downed entire bottles of the remedies at demonstrations in several Canadian cities in an effort to prove the concoctions don’t work.
Gem Newman, who consumed a whole bottle of St. John’s Wort at an event in Winnipeg, says the capsules were mostly comprised of sugar and water and didn’t affect him.”
This is anecdata, but for a more data points please see James Randi as he has been downing homeopathic remedies in quantity for years and is still with us.
“According to the Homepathic Medical Council of Canada’s website, the active ingredients in homeopathic medications are taken in highly-diluted form to avoid toxicity.
But Newman says the product’s heath claims are unproven, and the doses are so small that they are useless.”
It surprises me that in modern countries like Canada the woo peddlers are given so much respect (they have their “medical” council).
It is always amazing to witness the clueless try and defend what is indefensible. Water has no “memory” and will not cure you of any sort of disease that requires actual medicine, say for instance Polio. The video on the CBC site had a mother suggest that a homeopathic vaccine for Polio was ‘protecting’ her child. After I stuffed my cortex back into my skull (it runs away from white-hot stupidity) I realized that it was time for another post on the current round of homoeopathic ratbaggery . Please see the science blog Respectful Insolence for more homoeopathic loonery exposed.
I did find a previous video on Youtube from CBC Marketplace on colon cleansing which is another money-sink for ignorant people. Enjoy –
Update: Thanks to Intransigentia for getting the links to the CBC Marketplace show on Youtube. Also see Orac’s generally favorable analysis of how the CBC treated the woo-meisters.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
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