Prosecution rests in Oregon faith healing trial

OREGON CITY, Ore. (RNS) Prosecutors in the trial of two parents accused of neglecting their infant daughter’s illness rested their case Monday (July 6) after calling the last of three pediatricians who offered opinions about the medical conditions that caused the girl’s death. The doctors, and the deputy medical examiner who conducted 15-month-old Ava Worthington’s […]

OREGON CITY, Ore. (RNS) Prosecutors in the trial of two parents accused of neglecting their infant daughter’s illness rested their case Monday (July 6) after calling the last of three pediatricians who offered opinions about the medical conditions that caused the girl’s death.

The doctors, and the deputy medical examiner who conducted 15-month-old Ava Worthington’s autopsy, generally agreed that the girl suffered from malnutrition, breathing difficulties and a weakened immune system.

Ava had a cyst that blocked her trachea and esophagus and she failed to grow or gain weight.


Although she started out a large newborn, her height and weight did not progress normally. When she died on March 2, 2008, her development was consistent with a four-month-old.

The girl’s parents, Carl and Raylene Worthington, who believe in faith healing rather than secular medicine, are charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminal mistreatment for failing to seek medical care for their daughter.

Their attorneys will rely on a local pediatrician and an expert witness, Dr. Janice Ophoven, to counter the medical testimony. Ophoven, a pediatric forensic pathologist from Minnesota, regularly testifies in cases involving a child’s abuse or death.

The Worthingtons said they did not use doctors and would not have sought medical care for the girl. Instead, they relied on spiritual treatment including prayer, the laying on of hands and anointing with oil.

Several members of the Worthington’s Oregon City church, the Followers of Christ, are also expected to testify. Defense attorneys said that those who saw Ava during the last few days of her life believe she was getting better and that in the hours before she died, she was active, playful and happy.

Dr. Dan Leonhardt testified Monday that Ava started life as a large and sturdy baby but when she died 15 months later her weight and height were so far off the growth chart that “there isn’t even a line for it.”


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