Tag Archives: Dehydration

Ohio mom receives Life in Prison for going on vacation while her child was left in play pin for 10 days

Kristel-Candelario

Important Takeaways:

  • Ohio mom who left 16-month-old daughter to starve to death for 10 days pictured beaming on Puerto Rico beach
  • An Ohio mom posted a grinning photo of herself on a sunny beach at the same time that her little daughter lay dying in her filthy playpen back home.
  • Kristel Candelario, 32, pleaded guilty to aggravated murder Thursday for abandoning her 16-month-old daughter, Jailyn, when she jetted off on a 10-day vacation to Puerto Rico in June.
  • Three days into the trip, the seemingly carefree mom shared a photo of herself mugging for the camera on a sandy beach.
  • When Candelario finally returned to her Cleveland home a few days later, she found her daughter not breathing in her playpen and called 911.
  • The baby had languished in a pile that “consisted of soiled blankets and a bottom liner, saturated with urine and feces,” an affidavit stated.
  • An autopsy later revealed that Jailyn succumbed to starvation and dehydration

Read the original article by clicking here.

Cholera cases jump to 138 in Mozambique’s Beira after cyclone

Medical staff wear protective masks at a cholera treatment centre set up in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai in Beira, Mozambique, March 29, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings

By Stephen Eisenhammer

BEIRA, Mozambique (Reuters) – The number of confirmed cases of cholera in the cyclone-hit Mozambican port city of Beira jumped from five to 138 on Friday, as government and aid agencies battled to contain the spread of disease among the tens of thousands of victims of the storm.

Cyclone Idai smashed into Beira on March 14, causing catastrophic flooding and killing more than 700 people across three countries in southeast Africa.

Many badly affected areas in Mozambique and Zimbabwe are still inaccessible by road, complicating relief efforts and exacerbating the threat of infection.

Although there have been no confirmed cholera deaths in medical centers in Mozambique yet, at least two people died outside hospitals with symptoms including dehydration and diarrhea, the country’s environment minister Celso Correia said.

A Reuters reporter saw the body of a dead child being brought out of an emergency clinic in Beira on Wednesday. The child had suffered acute diarrhea, which can be a symptom of cholera.

“We expected this, we were prepared for this, we’ve doctors in place,” Correia told reporters.

The government said for the first time that there had been confirmed cholera cases on Wednesday.

Mozambique’s National Disaster Management Institute said the local death toll from the tropical storm had increased to 493 people, from 468 previously.

That takes the total death toll across Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi to 738 people, with many more still missing.

“Stranded communities are relying on heavily polluted water. This, combined with widespread flooding and poor sanitation, creates fertile grounds for disease outbreaks, including cholera,” the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement.

In Geneva, the World Health Organization’s Tarik Jasarevic said 900,000 doses of oral cholera vaccine were expected to arrive on Monday.

Cholera is endemic to Mozambique, which has had regular outbreaks over the past five years. About 2,000 people were infected in the last outbreak, which ended in February 2018, according to the WHO.

But the scale of the damage to Beira’s water and sanitation infrastructure, coupled with its dense population, have raised fears that another epidemic would be difficult to put down.

(Reporting by Stephen Eisenhammer in Beira and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing Alexander Winning; Editing by Alison Williams)

Cholera claims unborn children as epidemic spreads Yemen misery

Children wait to be treated at a cholera treatment center in Sanaa, Yemen May 15, 2017. Picture taken May 15, 2017.

By Abduljabbar Zeyad

HODEIDAH, Yemen (Reuters) – One of the latest victims of the cholera epidemic that has killed more than 2,000 people in Yemen had yet to even take her first breath.

Her mother Safaa Issa Kaheel, then nine months pregnant, was brought into a crowded clinic in the Western port city of Hodeidah by her husband, who had to borrow the travel fare from a neighbor. “My stomach started hurting more and more,” said Kaheel, 37, a hydrating drip hooked into her arm.

Once there, she was referred by nurse Hayam al-Shamaa for an ultrasound scan which showed her baby had died of dehydration – one of 15 to perish in the womb due to cholera in September and October, according to doctors at the city’s Thawra hospital.

“I felt like death,” Kaheel said, her voice strained. “Thank god I survived the (delivery), but my diarrhea hasn’t stopped.”

The Red Cross has warned that cholera, a diarrheal disease that has been eradicated in most developed countries, could infect a million people in Yemen by the end of the year.

Two and a half years of war have sapped Yemen of the money and medical facilities it needs to battle the contagion, to which aid agencies and medics say the poor, the starving, the pregnant and the young are most vulnerable.

The cholera ward is full of children – some writhing in agony, others eerily still. The blanket over one boy too weak to move rises and falls with his shallow breathing.

Save the Children said in August that children under 15 represent nearly half of new cases and a third of deaths, with malnourished children more than six times more likely to die of cholera than well-fed ones.

Millions of Yemenis are struggling to find food and the baking desert plains around Hodeidah are hotspots both of hunger and sickness.

Yemen’s war pits the armed Houthi movement against the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition that has launched thousands of air strikes to restore him to power.

At least 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

The country’s health sector has been badly battered while a struggle over the central bank has left public sector salaries for doctors and sanitation workers unpaid.

Soumaya Beltifa, spokesperson for the Red Cross in Sanaa, warned that a lack of funds and health personnel were blunting efforts to eradicate the disease, making it unlikely Yemen would be healthy again soon.

“The cholera epidemic has become a norm, leading to complacency in dealing with the disease, not only by civilians but also from the various (aid) organizations,” she warned.

 

Dangerously Hot Weather for Most of the Country

By Kami Klein

Heat is one of the leading weather-related killers in the United States, resulting in hundreds of fatalities each year and even more heat-related illnesses.  You only have to step outside for a few minutes to see how fast an illness or death could happen.  

According to the National Weather Forecast,  hot and very humid conditions will push the heat index to well over 100 degrees across a large portion of the central U.S. this week. Excessive Heat Warnings and Heat Advisories are in effect for much of the Plains, Mississippi Valley, Midwest and southern states. The heat will spread eastward by this weekend.

Be very cautious if you must do outdoor activities during the afternoon and evening. Stay hydrated and take breaks in the shade.  Check on the elderly, sick and those without air conditioning.  Look before you lock your doors to be sure you are not leaving children or pets behind.

Please be safe! Nobody is immune to heat and ALL heat related deaths and illnesses are preventable!

 

British Mother Kills Disabled Daughter By Dehydration & Starvation

A British woman has been revealed to have killed her disabled 12 year old daughter by stopping hydration and nutrition.

Nancy Fitzmaurice died in August after officials at London’s Great Ormand Street Hospital stopped her support.  The child suffered from hydrocephalus, meningitis and septicemia at the time of her death.

Her mother had petitioned a judge to allow her to kill her child via a slow death from lack of hydration.  The mother, Charlotte Fitzmaurice Wise, said that she felt her daughter had suffered enough.

The death in August was kept secret until the parents came forward to advocate for the parents of other special needs children to be able to kill their children without court approval.

Disability advocates around the world immediately condemned the family for their killing and said that approval of such actions sets a dangerous precedent.

“Euthanasia of people with disabilities is an extremely dangerous and wholly inappropriate solution to inadequate pain management. In cases where painkillers are insufficient, a number of alternatives for pain management exist. A policy of euthanasia targets vulnerable people, particularly when it is applied to children. People with disabilities who experience chronic pain should have same access as others to life-sustaining medical treatment,” the Autism Self Advocacy Network said in a statement.