 I have another sad story to tell you about the preventable death of a child. Little Gloria Thomas was nine months old when she died. The cause of death is quite shocking. Gloria died of eczema. In the last days of her life in May of 2002, it melted her corneas, permanently blinding her. It consumed her body. At her death, this little nine-month-old had the body weight of a three-month-old. It racked her with daily pain and suffering. Witnesses report that on a flight from Singapore, she cried nonstop for several hours, with an urgency that many passengers were alarmed at. Eczema is a very common form of dermatitis. It's estimated that almost one in nine people will be diagnosed with it at some point in their lives. It's most common in women of reproductive age, and the overall incidence is sharply up in the last decade in at least some areas. Eczema is actually a family of skin disorders, usually caused by an allergic reaction of the skin. Skin that is dry or irritated is much more vulnerable, as the immune system is primed by the tissue damage. Eczema is not curable, but it is highly treatable. Steroids, creams, light therapy, antibiotics, and strong moisturizers can minimize the itching, cracking, redness, and pain. To deal with the allergy, food, environment, medications should be examined. Most mites and food allergy are implicated as the most common causes, but there's also a strong genetic component. And yes, Eczema can be life-threatening, but only in the rare cases when treatment is neglected or delayed. And that's what happened to Gloria. But her parents were not necessarily being intentionally cruel. No, the reason Gloria died of medical neglect is that Gloria's father, Thomas Sam, is a homeopath. He treated Gloria with a homeopathic remedy for eczema, and each time he did so, he said the baby would get better, then take a turn for the worse. They consulted many physicians over the four months that Gloria suffered with eczema, but and here's what turns the story really ugly for me, they either rejected the doctor's advice immediately, or they didn't continue with the therapy for the recommended period. But they had great faith in the homeopathic remedy. There's a degree of cultural influence here. In India, homeopathic medicine is often treated as equal to conventional medicine. After her death, the parents were tried and pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter by gross criminal negligence of their child. They've been sentenced to 10 years in jail. I'm not interested in condemning them. I think they made some very bad decisions, but this is less a case of neglect than a sort of mental illness akin to the religious fundamentalist reliance on faith healing. To accept the advice of a competent physician, it would have required the parents to admit that homeopathy just doesn't work. This is a child's sacrifice to the gods of homeopathy, just as one to five children die every month in the US due to the beliefs of the parents or guardians. If this is a topic that you feel strongly about, I urge you to visit the link in the sidebar. The organization is Children's Health Care is a Legal Duty. They're legal advocates for children's right to proper medical care, especially in religious or cultural practices. If you see a child in need of care or the victim of abuse or neglect, please don't hesitate to call your local authorities. You can save a life. Now there's also the specific issue of homeopathy, and I'll address that in the second part.