Mother charged with manslaughter after diabetic daughter, 10, dies on road trip
A mother in Washington has been charged with manslaughter for allegedly delaying life-saving medical care for her diabetic child.Lloydina McAllister’s 10-year-old daughter, who had Type 1 diabetes, slipped into a coma on a summer road trip with her family, according to news reports.The child, identified in documents only as T.G., was dead by the time she arrived at the hospital.Investigators believe she died of prolonged diabetic ketoacidosis, or DKA.Prosecutors allege that McAllister, 42, “failed to provide life-saving care for her child, despite substantial education and training on the life-threatening risks of prolonged periods of high blood sugar when a child has Type 1 Diabetes.”McAllister was arrested on Nov.
4 after an investigation by the police department in Kirkland, Wash.She pleaded not guilty during her arraignment and is being held on $1 million bail at the King County Correctional Facility, Newsweek reported.Police began their investigation when the child was brought to a hospital in Tacoma in July.According to the charging document, McAllister, the girl, her siblings and her mother’s boyfriend left home on July 17 for the Oregon-California border.
On the previous day, the girl’s insulin pump began displaying “high” blood glucose levels, and she was reportedly vomiting, a symptom of DKA.The onset of DKA is severe and sudden, and experts say vomiting is a sign that the condition is progressing rapidly.The family traveled to Northern California before turning around and beginning the 714-mile drive to bring the girl to a Tacoma hospital.On the morning of July 18, McAllister allegedly texted her mother, who works at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma, “I’m bring [the girl] in she is DKA we was on way to California but she was taking her pump out.” For diabetics who use an insulin pump, a disconnected tube can prevent insulin from getting into the body, triggering DKA.When the girl was brought to the hospital later that aft...