Parents Plead Guilty to 8-Year-Old Son's 'Preventable' Death
A mother and father have both pleaded guilty to manslaughter after their 8-year-old son died from a curable form of cancer because they denied him a doctor.
William Robinson, 40, and Monica Hussing, 37, both of Ohio, now face up to eight years in prison, according to Mail Online.
Prosecutors argue that the couple's late son Willie Robinson begged his parents for medical attention and died after they refused him help, arguing that they were too poor.
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An attorney for the parents, who have five other children, tried to justify the boy's tragic death by explaining that the family did not have health insurance.
"Unfortunately, these people did not have that ability to get the proper health care and I think the entire system both in Warren, in Trumbull County and in Cuyahoga County it was just a little bit of … the ball was dropped," John Luskin told Fox8.
It is believed that the boy suffered from Hodgkin's lymphoma, one of the most treatable forms of cancer, and that had begged his parents for help after complaining of excruciating pain.
"Willie Robinson, in the last couple of days of his life, asked his parents to take him to a hospital and would say things like 'Mommy, it hurts,'" Ohio's Cuyahoga County prosecutor Bill Mason told ABC News.
Another expert confirmed that the boy was never taken to see a doctor, despite his cries for help.
"We were the first to diagnose him … This boy had not received any medical attention before he got to us," Cuyahoga County coroner Frank Miller said.
Miller also pointed out what he suggested were obvious signs of ill health that the boy displayed when he collapsed in his parents' home and died.
"He had swelling in his neck and pneumonia when he died. He looked gaunt and pale and certainly would have appeared visibly ill to the average person," he said.
The couple has been blasted as irresponsible and cruel by critics, particularly after Hussing's own sister claimed that the boy received no sympathy when he complained of sickness.
"He would stand at the bottom of the stairs and say that he needed help to get upstairs [to the bathroom] and my sister would tell him to get his a-- upstairs," said Sheila Slawinski, the boy's aunt.
According to sources, Willie had never been to school because the parents prefer to keep their children out, and although they complained of money woes, they managed to fork out $87 to have their pet pit bull treated for fleas at the veterinarian’s office.
Doctors confirmed that had Willie been treated, he would have likely made a full recovery.
"I don't know what is wrong with my sister ... I'm so embarrassed and ashamed that this happened," Slawinski fumed.
