I have to admit that I don’t know much about diabetes, despite the fact that my wife of more than twenty years has it. I know enough to respond appropriately to a diabetes-related emergency, but that’s about it. But I’ll tell you what I do know: anyone who withholds medical treatment from a person in diabetic crisis should be tied to a chair, doused with gasoline and then lit up like a Christmas tree.
If Lloydina McAllister did what she’s accused of doing, then I’d love to be the one to douse and light. That’s because she allegedly allowed her ten-year-old daughter to die as opposed to you know, getting her medical treatment. Despite being well-trained, McAllister, who is sitting in jail on a $1 million bond on a manslaughter charge, apparently would not or could not get her daughter to a hospital.
The child, who has only been identified using her initials in legal paperwork, had type 1 diabetes, suffered a medical crisis over the summer while she and her family were enjoying a summer vacation. By all accounts, she expected to be cared for but got a death sentence instead. She suffered from prolonged diabetic ketoacidosis, which can escalate quite quickly. All the more reason to rush her to a hospital, right?
If the charging papers are correct, the child was in crisis for a whole day. Each passing second pounded another nail into her coffin. The girl’s glucose monitor gave off numerous warnings a day before the child’s death. Rather than find the nearest emergency room, McAllister, her boyfriend, the victim and the victim’s siblings pressed forward to Northern California before turning around and returning to Washington state. It was then and only then that the child actually received medical care.
But by then, it was all over.
By the time she arrived at the hospital, the girl had already been deceased for several hours. Apparently, the child’s pump was disconnected, preventing life-saving insulin from entering her body. You don’t have to be a doctor to know how critical insulin is. I’ve seen a couple of diabetic emergencies in my day, and I can assure you that the victim got proper emergency medical care under my watch. Not in a matter of a day or even hours. Minutes. Because every second counts.
It’s my opinion that, as a parent of a diabetic child, McAllister knew what she was doing. She clearly didn’t care. She didn’t care whether or not her child lived or died. That’s obvious to me. People who kill children don’t tend to do well in jail, so hopefully, she’s being dealt with appropriately by the other inmates.
So what was McAllister’s excuse for being a monster? It seems that she was scared because she took her child out of state, contrary to a parenting agreement with the child’s father. That’s no excuse. When a human life is in peril, you get them help first and then deal with any consequences.
Clearly, this monster of a woman, if you can even call her that, cared more about what would happen to her than what did happen to her a child, a child who had every right to be expected to be cared for. McAllister couldn’t even be bothered to bring test strips, a very basic thing when a diabetic person is involved.
Listen, if it’d been me, I would have gotten my child immediate medical care and I would have dealt with the legal fallout later. This vile woman was more concerned about what would happen to her than she was about whether or not her child lived. This poor girl trusted her mother with her very life, and McAllister failed her.
Hopefully, McAllister will spend a long time in prison where she will hopefully be assaulted on several levels every day that she’s there. Either that, or just go with my gas idea. That punishment might be more fitting for her.
This isn’t a manslaughter case. This, in my opinion, is a murder case.