Medical experts were a major part of Monday’s testimony at the trial of Dale Neumann who is accused of praying rather than seeking medical attention for his dying daughter. Prosecutors built a major part of their case with two physicians. St. Clare’s Hospital emergency services medical director Dr. Choon P’ng said doctors used all appropriate forms of treatment in their unsuccessful effort to revive Madeline Kara Neumann.
A pediatric endocrinologist also testified that Kara had a 99-point-8 percent chance of surviving her disease had she been treated, even up to the moment of her death. Dr. Ivan Zador also said it would have impossible for anyone to miss her labored breathing as a worrisome symptom the day before she died.
Defense attorney Jay Kronenwetter fired back by building on a theory that what the physicians actions may have hastened the girl’s death. But the doctors pushed back telling Kronenwetter that the sodium bicarbonate they administered to re-start the girl’s heart would not have made her diabetic ketoacidosis worse by raising her potassium levels. In fact, they say her levels may have been elevated already because of cells breaking down post death. The only way doctors could have controlled the 11-year-old’s potassium was through insulin but that wasn’t possible because circulation is required and she was already dead.
The wife of the accused, Leilani Neumann, is scheduled to testify this morning. Prosecutors will grant her immunity for testifying. This means nothing she says can be used against her in future court proceedings, like her sentencing on a second-degree reckless homicide charge October 6th. The testimony will be the first time the public will hear from the mother outside of taped police interviews and written statements. She chose not to testify at her trial in May.
