Parents Charged After Daughter's Fatal Asthma Attack, accused of stalling on seeking treatment for 9-year-old Amy

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

Parents Charged After Daughter's Fatal Asthma Attack
Rachel and Anthony Modrow are accused of stalling on seeking treatment for 9-year-old Amy

The parents of a Minnesota girl who died after an asthma attack earlier this year have been charged with second-degree manslaughter, accused of not taking her to the hospital as she suffered the attack. KARE 11 and the Star Tribune report that Anthony and Rachel Modrow, both 34, were booked Wednesday into the Hennepin County Jail regarding their 9-year-old daughter Amy, whose story started on the evening of Feb. 9.

Asthma attack: Per a criminal complaint, Amy was sleeping over a friend's house that night when she started struggling with her breathing. The friend's mother told investigators that Amy seemed to have trouble using her asthma inhaler, so she called the Modrows around 7am to let them know. Amy's parents don't have a car, so the friend's mother drove Amy home and told them she could take Amy to the doctor, but they declined that offer. "The woman said the victim was wheezing, breathing heavily, could barely walk, and asked to be taken to a doctor," per KARE.


Finally, help: A family friend was then called to the house around 10am, and he says when he got there, "Amy's skin was blue, she couldn't raise her arms, and she was crying," the Star Tribune notes. While Rachel Modrow wanted to run a steam bath to help her daughter, the friend insisted on calling an ambulance; he's said to have called 911 around 10:40am.

Amy's death: Amy stayed in the ICU until a week later, when she was declared brain dead due to lack of oxygen. Anthony Modrow told police during questioning that Amy had told them about a month earlier that her inhaler was empty and that they'd never gotten it refilled.


https://www.newser.com/story/349271/parents-charged-after-daughters-fatal-asthma-attack.html

[brer cat]

1. I have asthma, and it is terrifying to find oneself unable to get a breath.

That poor child would be alive if only her emergency inhaler was functional or her family had taken her in for help. What a terrible way to die!

[ProfessorGAC]

2. Such A Shame

The baffling part is why they didn't let the friend drive them to the hospital.
Afraid of the medical expenses?

[intheflow]

3. I'm guessing yes.

I also wondered if they couldn’t afford the inhaler. Sad if they’re working poor, tragic if they’re drug addicts. That poor little girl.

[3Hotdogs]

4. Most likely. It wasn't about Jesus or they wouldn't have the inhaler in the first place.

[elocs]

5. What is baffling to me is why the friend's mother didn't just call 911 but wasted valuable time. n/t

[Bucky]

7. Do you mean on the night before?

I can definitely understand the reluctance to call an ambulance over someone else's kid for something that should be as simple as having a replacement inhaler.

But agreed, once it's a full-blown crisis there was no reason to delay.

[mainer]

15. Hospitals need parental permission to treat a minor

Maybe friend’s mother was worried that would be a problem.

Whenever we left our kids with someone, we also left a signed statement that caregiver could okay emergency treatment for our child.

[elocs]

19. There is an expectation if the patient is incapacitated which a little girl who can't breathe certainly is.

When 911 arrived and they thought the girl was dying, they would save her even without parental consent. I can't imagine any court convicting them or how they would live with themselves if they allowed the girl to die in front of them.

[NickB79]

12. Local coverage paints them as extremely neglectful parents

Interviews with friends and neighbors produced statements about how they basically ignored the child, lived in filth, and couldn't be bothered to get off the couch to play with or care for her.

[Bucky]

6. Speculating about the whys is pointless

Maybe poverty cause this, or lack of affordable medical assistance, or fear of costs, or poor education, or some weird ideology, or a substance abuse.

I've been that scared parent with an inexplicably sick child, there's nothing scarier in the world than to be helpless and clueless and short on funds. I still can't imagine the decision not to go to the hospital.

But there's just too much we don't know. I definitely want to hear more about this case.

[Probatim]

9. Thanks for the compassion - scared people do stupid things all the time.

It's a damn shame this time it ended up in their child's death.

[Farmer-Rick]

8. If they couldn't afford a car

I doubt the family could afford an emergency room visit.

Not that that's a good reason to let your daughter die from lack of medical care.

My parents were always very hesitant to bring in medical assistance because of the cost too. Luckily I was pretty healthy.

But there comes a time when life over rides sinking further into debt. This is why medical care should be free.

We have a really crappy medical system which compounds really crappy parenting.

[dembotoz]

10. have you even been really broke? The hospital will hound you forever

inhalers cost $$$$
Our safety net has holes big enough for a little girl to fall thru

[Ziggysmom]

11. Not just hound you, but will get court judgements to garnish your wages. A friend was forced

to file bankruptcy because after garnishing 25% of his salary, he was nearly homeless.
Healthcare should be a right, not a privilege. Here in the US we don't have healthcare, we have deathcare.

[Mosby]

13. Albuteral is cheap, with or without insurance

It's $32 without insurance at Cubans cost plus drugs.

With insurance it's probably less than 5 bucks.

https://costplusdrugs.com/medications/albuterol-90mcg-inhaler8_5g/

[PatSeg]

16. This is true

But in their case, it is likely they may have had to visit a doctor to get a prescription. It is long past time for Albuterol inhalers to be over-the-counter and cheaper.

[Mosby]

17. Good point.

There are a lot of drugs that should be available w/out a script, but maybe kept behind the counter like pseudoephedrine.

[PatSeg]

25. The irony is we can still buy Primatene

over the counter and it is considered harmful by many healthcare providers, but the inhalers they claim are safer like Albuterol and Atrovent require a prescription. Pharmaceutical companies make a fortune off of asthma medications.

It was drug companies that got the cheaper more effective CFC inhalers banned, so they could manufacture HFA inhalers and sell them for 3 or 4 times as much. It wasn't any environmental groups who lobbied congress, it was drug companies. For many asthmatics, myself included, the HFA inhalers don't come close to the old ones.

[hunter]

22. Albuterol was an over-the-counter drug for a few years.

Unfortunately albuterol doesn't always stop an asthma attack and too much albuterol can kill a person, especially someone panicking and struggling to breathe.

Albuterol is not an appropriate first line treatment for asthma.

I've had severe asthma since I was a child, when asthma treatments were still primitive. I was a frequent flyer to hospital emergency rooms. I knew people who had died of asthma.

Twice daily use of steroid inhalers changed my life.

The worst of it was people who claimed asthma was some sort of psychosomatic illness. If my parents had believed that I'd probably be dead.

[PatSeg]

27. Yes, I've seen people treat asthmatics

like they were hypochondriacs and suggesting their attacks were just a ploy to get attention. I remember being appalled when my aunt yelled at my cousin for wheezing, as if she was doing it on purpose. I even remembering my ex-husband say he'd never heard of anyone dying of an asthma attack and he was a paramedic. He really should have known better.

I don't remember Albuterol being over-the-counter, but I went quite a long time without experiencing any attacks. Now I usually use Albuterol in a micro nebulizer and it often works better than my inhaler. However, it is good to have the inhaler with me when I go out.

[Silent Type]

28. I didn't develop asthma until late in life. But the first time I couldn't breathe, I wanted to apologize to every kid

that I thought might be faking while growing up. It's a scary feeling and people yelling at you to "calm down and breathe" makes it worse. Use the steriods now and seldom have to resort to albuterol.

[dembotoz]

20. last time i got mine pre insurance it was over 75 bucks

[Mosby]

21. Mark Cuban's drug company is selling discounted prescriptions

https://costplusdrugs.com/medications/albuterol-90mcg-inhaler8_5g/

[xmas74]

23. You still need a prescription

Cash price just to get into a pcp if you pay at time of appointment is $165 in my area. If they bill you it's over $200.00. This is to just get the script, not to fill it.

[Mosby]

24. 92% of Americans have health insurance.

My pcp copay is $20.

Obamacare policies are almost free or are free for low income families.

[xmas74]

29. I work with uninsured patients.

Many of our poorest populations are dealing with the ramifications of recertification after the pandemic freeze. Our mail service isn't getting recertification paperwork to people on time, causing them to be removed from Medicaid rolls. Those most affected have been children.

My state, Missouri, is at an 86 day minimum to process a simple Medicaid application. Our ABD app, CHIP, etc are even further behind. We have pregnant women who applied at the start of their pregnancy and nearly seven months later have yet to even have eyes on the application. The time from application to approval per the Missouri Medicaid guidelines is 15 days.

It's an absolute nightmare. I see it every day.

[mainer]

14. Dad was too busy filming the ambulance with his phone

To pay attention to his daughter’s crisis. According to neighbors, the family was neglectful and used the video just to start a gofundme page to raise money.

I was at first appalled that the parents were arrested, thinking that poverty was why they didn’t bring the girl to the ER. Then I read the neighbors’ accounts and saw these parents were truly awful.

[pfitz59]

18. The old saw

'You need a license to drive a car, but not one to be a parent.'

[Silent Type]

26. Inhalers aren't cheap nowadays, and often have high copays. Just a sad story.