Gruesome

[antonin]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&e=3&u=/ap/mother_charged

[Brent]

Utah Woman Charged With Murdering Fetus    
 
By ALEXANDRIA SAGE, Associated Press Writer

SALT LAKE CITY - A woman accused of murder because she allegedly avoided a Caesarean section that could have saved her unborn twin has denied the charge, saying she already had scars from earlier C-sections. Her attorney, meanwhile, said she had a long history of mental illness.

[img src=http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20040311/capt.utsac10103112353.mother_charged_utsac101.jpg"  width="333" height="409]
Melissa Ann  Rowland, 28,  is shown in this police photo released Thursday, March 11, 2004. Rowland is charged with murder for allegedly ignoring a doctor's warnings to undergo a Caesarean section to save the life of one of her unborn twins, who was later delivered stillborn. Melissa Ann Rowland, is charged in Salt Lake County with one first-degree felony count of criminal homicide. (AP Photo/Salt Lake Tribune, police photo)

Melissa Ann Rowland, 28, was charged Thursday of showing "depraved indifference to human life," ignoring medical advice to deliver her twins by C-section because she didn't want to be scarred. One nurse told police Rowland said she would rather "lose one of the babies than be cut like that."


Rowland told Salt Lake City radio station KSL from jail that "I already have a pretty nasty scar, it doesn't matter at all now," The Salt Lake Tribune reported.


Her attorney, Michael Sikora, called a C-section major surgery and told the Tribune "it would come as no surprise that a woman with major mental illness would fear it."


The documents allege that Rowland was warned numerous times between Christmas and Jan. 9 that her unborn twins would likely die if she did not get immediate medical treatment, the documents allege. When she delivered them on Jan. 13, the twin girl survived but the boy died.


Shortly afterward, Rowland was jailed on a child endangerment charge involving the surviving twin, who has been adopted by a family Rowland knows.


Rowland told the radio station she has two other children who live with their grandparents in Virginia. Sikora said Rowland moved to Utah with a boyfriend and is either divorced or estranged from her husband. She lives in the Salt Lake City suburb of West Jordan.


A spokesman for the district attorney, Kent Morgan, had said earlier that Rowland was married.


The case could affect abortion rights and open the door to the prosecution of mothers who smoke or don't follow their obstetrician's diet, said Marguerite Driessen, a law professor at Brigham Young University.


"It's very troubling to have somebody come in and say we're going to charge this mother for murder because we don't like the choices she made," she said.


The woman sought medical advice in December because she hadn't felt the fetuses move, documents said.


Regina Davis, a nurse at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake, told police that during a visit there, Rowland was recommended two hospitals to go to for immediate care. Rowland allegedly said she would rather have both twins die before she went to either of the suggested hospitals.


On Jan. 2, a doctor at LDS Hospital saw Rowland and recommended she immediately undergo a C-section based on the results of an ultrasound and the fetus' slowing heart rates. Rowland left after signing a document stating that she understood that leaving might result in death or brain injury to one or both twins, the doctor told police.


The same day, a nurse at Salt Lake Regional Hospital saw Rowland, who allegedly told her she had left LDS Hospital because the doctor wanted to cut her "from breast bone to pubic bone," a procedure that would "ruin her life."


LDS Hospital can't comment on the case because of medical privacy issues and the pending court case, said spokesman Robert Pexton.


The doctor who performed an autopsy found that the fetus died two days before delivery and would have survived if Rowland had undergone a C-section when urged to do so. It was not immediately clear how far along Rowland was in her pregnancy.

She was charged in Salt Lake County with one first-degree felony count of criminal homicide. Rowland was being held on $250,000 bail at the Salt Lake County jail, and was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.

If convicted, she could be sentenced to between five years and life in prison.

"We are unable to find any reason other than the cosmetic motivations by the mother" for her decision, Morgan said.

Caesarean sections usually involve delivery through a surgical incision in the abdomen and front wall of the uterus. Dr. Christian Morgan, a family practice doctor who regularly performs C-sections at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center, said he had never seen vertical skin incisions performed at LDS Hospital for a first-time C-section.

"Even when you need to get a baby out in minutes, it can still be done in the bikini incision," Christian Morgan said.

[Kitty C.]

Just when I think that I've heard it all, some idiot raises the stakes........

From the looks of that woman, I'm not surprised.  What a piece of shit.  And I'm sorry, but mental illness is no excuse.  The doctors are required, BY LAW, to describe in detail exactly how they would do the surgery and she blatantly disregarded it.  There was no delusion involved there, she just flat out refused to listen.

I hope to God they throw the book at her.  Anyone know if Utah has the death penalty?  Probably not, being it is predominantly Mormon........

[antonin]

Just the illogical and horrifying philosophical conclusion of gender feminism: teaching people that they are more important THAN ANYBODY, including their family, husbands, and kids results in sickening logic and actions such as these.

[sweetnsad]

Sick as hell....I, for the life of me, cannot even attempt to comment on this one...what's wrong with people anyway???

[Peanutsdad]

I really dont know why ANY of us are shocked at this.

You want to know whats wrong with people? Take a stroll down memeory lane,, or if you arent old enough,, a little history lesson.


During WWII,, American citizens pulled together, put others and national concerns above their own.


In the 60's, Kennedy said,, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country"

In the 70's, the nation was too stoned to say anything.

The 80's brought us Madonna and Cindy Lauper,, All about me and material girl.

The 90's brought us a woman who sued McDonalds for hot coffee burning her,, and won......go figure,, how were they supposed to know that coffee should be cold. corporate raiders and politicians raped the national coffers, the savings and loans, other corporations,, retirement funds and all of em skipped off to their offshore bank accounts scott free.



Is it any wonder that thru the changing social structure, we see parents strap their kids in carseats, and push the car off into a lake to have their babies drown, or ignore medical advise like this woman did?? Quite frankly, I'm not surprised at all.

[antonin]

I agree completely.

[sweetnsad]

I wasn't being literal PD, just saddened by what the world has come to...I am well aware of how sick people can be, it just angers me that so much of it goes on and nothing is being done about it....

[Brent]

>The 90's brought us a woman who sued McDonalds for hot coffee
>burning her,, and won......go figure,, how were they supposed
>to know that coffee should be cold.

Actually, she was more than justified in suing. Here's the whole story, the one the media buried because it didn't fit the 'soundbite':

FACT SHEET: MCDONALD'S SCALDING COFFEE CASE

Stella Liebeck of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was in the passenger seat of her grandson's car when she was severely burned by McDonald's coffee in February 1992. Liebeck ordered coffee that was served in a Styrofoam cup at the drive-through window of a local McDonald's. Related Article:

After receiving the order, the grandson pulled his car forward and stopped momentarily so that Liebeck could add cream and sugar to her coffee. (Critics of civil justice, who have pounced on this case, often charge that Liebeck was driving the car or that the vehicle was in motion when she spilled the coffee; neither is true.) Liebeck placed the cup between her knees and attempted to remove the plastic lid from the cup. As she removed the lid, the entire contents of the cup spilled into her lap.

The sweatpants Liebeck was wearing absorbed the coffee and held it next to her skin. A vascular surgeon determined that Liebeck suffered full thickness burns (or third-degree burns) over 6 percent of her body, including her inner thighs, perineum, buttocks, and genital and groin areas. She was hospitalized for eight days, during which time she underwent skin grafting. Liebeck, who also underwent debridement treatments, sought to settle her claim for $20,000, but McDonald's refused.

During discovery, McDonald's produced documents showing more than 700 claims by people burned by its coffee between 1982 and 1992. Some claims involved third-degree burns substantially similar to Liebeck's. This history documented McDonald's knowledge about the extent and nature of this hazard.

McDonald's also said during discovery that, based on a consultant's advice, it held its coffee at between 180 and 190 degrees Fahrenheit to maintain optimum taste. Other establishments sell coffee at substantially lower temperatures, and coffee served at home is generally 135 to 140 degrees.

Further, McDonald's quality assurance manager testified that the company actively enforces a requirement that coffee be held in the pot at 185 degrees, plus or minus five degrees. He also testified that a burn hazard exists with any food substance served at 140 degrees or above, and that McDonald's coffee, at the temperature at which it was poured into Styrofoam cups, was not fit for consumption because it would burn the mouth and throat. The quality assurance manager admitted that burns would occur, but testified that McDonald's had no intention of reducing the "holding temperature" of its coffee.

Plaintiff's expert, a scholar in thermodynamics as applied to human skin burns, testified that liquids, at 180 degrees, will cause a full thickness burn to human skin in two to seven seconds. Other testimony showed that as the temperature decreases toward 155 degrees, the extent of the burn relative to that temperature decreases exponentially. Thus, if Liebeck's spill had involved coffee at 155 degrees, the liquid would have cooled and given her time to avoid a serious burn.

McDonald's asserted that customers buy coffee on their way to work or home, intending to consume it there. However, the company's own research showed that customers intend to consume the coffee immediately while driving.

McDonald's also argued that consumers know coffee is hot and that its customers want it that way. The company admitted its customers were unaware that they could suffer third-degree burns from the coffee and that a statement on the side of the cup was not a "warning" but a "reminder" since the location of the writing would not warn customers of the hazard.

The Wall Street Journal wrote (September 1, 1994), "The testimony of Mr. [Christopher] HACKon, the McDonald's executive, didn't help the company, jurors said later. He testified that McDonald's knew its coffee sometimes caused serious burns, but hadn't consulted burn experts about it. He also testified that McDonald's had decided not to warn customers about the possibility of severe burns, even though most people wouldn't think it possible. Finally, he testified that McDonald's didn't intend to change any of its coffee policies or procedures, saying, 'There are more serious dangers in restaurants.' "

The Journal quoted one juror, Jack Elliott, remarking after the trial that the case had been about such "callous disregard for the safety of the people."


The Journal story continued, "Next for the defense came P. Robert Knaff, a human-factors engineer who earned $15,000 in fees from the case and who, several jurors said

later, didn't help McDonald's either. Dr. Knaff told the jury that hot-coffee burns were statistically insignificant when compared to the billion cups of coffee McDonald's sells annually. To jurors, Dr. Knaff seemed to be saying that the graphic photos they had seen of Mrs. Liebeck's burns didn't matter because they were rare. 'There was a person behind every number and I don't think the corporation was attaching enough importance to that,' says juror Betty Farnham."


At the beginning of the trial, jury foreman Jerry Goens told the Journal, he "wasn't convinced as to why I needed to be there to settle a coffee spill."


By the end of the trial, Betty Farnham told the Journal, "The facts were so overwhelmingly against the company. They were not taking care of their customers."

The jury awarded Liebeck $200,000 in compensatory damages. This amount was reduced to $160,000 because the jury found Liebeck 20 percent at fault in the spill. The jury also awarded Liebeck $2.7 million in punitive damages, which equals about two days of McDonald's coffee sales.

Post-verdict investigation found that the temperature of coffee at the local Albuquerque McDonald's had dropped to 158 degrees Fahrenheit.

The trial court subsequently reduced the punitive award to $480,000 -- or three times compensatory damages -- even though the judge called McDonald's conduct reckless, callous and willful. Subsequent to remittitur, the parties entered a post-verdict settlement.


http://www.atlanet.org/ConsumerMediaResources
/Tier3/press_room/FACTS/frivolous/McdonaldsCoffeecase.aspx

[MYSONSDAD]

That is one ugly B*tch. She put herself before her kids.

Hope she gets life, since she took one away.

Nothing mentioned on the surviving baby.

"Children learn what they live"