US missionary accused of imitating a doctor and killing children

[Wagtales10]

Woman sued over death of babies, faking qualification

A woman who has been running a local non-governmental organisation and whose alleged activities involved treating malnourished children with some dying in the process, has been sued for her alleged actions on grounds that she was not a qualified medical doctor.

 

[Herat]

Woman sued over death of babies, faking qualification

A woman who has been running a local non-governmental organisation and whose alleged activities involved treating malnourished children with some dying in the process, has been sued for her alleged actions on grounds that she was not a qualified medical doctor.

This is in Uganda.

I know this kind of practice is fairly common with small charitable organizations.
One person thinks they know something about medical care and out of charity makes attempts at providing healthcare.

 

[ClaireNC]

Her NGO was shut down in 2015. More info here: When White Saviorism Turns Deadly: American missionary played doctor, children died, when will…

 

[Herat]

Her NGO was shut down in 2015. More info here: When White Saviorism Turns Deadly: American missionary played doctor, children died, when will…

OMG, that article is amazing

She was doing BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS on little children. She had NO medical training, other than youtube vidoes

White Saviour Complex is right. She should have been put in jail

 

[cdn6002]

It’s tough for us white folk with some resources to imagine that the most good we can do might be confronting our own implicit biases and distorted beliefs about who needs our help and what that might resemble when put into action.

Higher power: pray for this whole delusional lot, myself included.

 

[Ksprincess2]

Her NGO was shut down in 2015. More info here: When White Saviorism Turns Deadly: American missionary played doctor, children died, when will…

That picture of her standing in the middle of the room with pictures of kids freaks me out

 

[Herat]

That picture of her standing in the middle of the room with pictures of kids freaks me out

It’s delusional and tells me an immense amount about who she believes she is

 

[helpfulcharlie]

"I'm not a doctor, but I play one in Uganda."

 

[amymarie]

So if the organization was shut down in 2015, but the two moms are currently suing her and asking for a cease and desist order, does that mean she is still practicing medicine over there?

And the picture doesn’t freak me out - all I see is a woman praying for those children. Nothing harmful can come from that.

 

[amymarie]

The organization has posts on its Facebook page: Serving His Children

It also has a response to the lawsuit, written by an attorney, that was posted yesterday.

 

[Ksprincess2]

The organization has posts on its Facebook page: Serving His Children

It also has a response to the lawsuit, written by an attorney, that was posted yesterday.

Interesting. I would have thought this organization would separate themselves from her at this point. I also feel like if she did nothing wrong that Renee would step back and let her organization continue their work without her while she is investigated. The response to the lawsuit states in part, " while Ms. Bach is passionate about serving people, she understands that medical professionals should diagnose and treat medical conditions to provide the highest standard of care."

However that is a direct contradiction to Renee's own words that she wrote in a blog on Serving His Children's website, Renee wrote “I hooked the baby up to oxygen and got to work….As I took her temperature, started an IV, checked her blood sugar, tested for malaria, and looked at her HB count… I was attempting to diagnose the many problems that could potentially be at hand…After doing a search for blood around Jinja town, we found her type and it was a match! We started the transfusion…”

Not sure how that Attorney can argue that she was not diagnosing and treating patients.

 

[amymarie]

Why does the title say she is accused of killing 100 babies? That is not mentioned in the article. The article talks about two babies and even the response from the lawyer only mentions two babies.

I wouldn’t be surprised if 100 babies did die, but that’s probably from the malnourishment and diseases.

I think this lady probably did overstep her expertise but I don’t think she is a murderer.

I guess the main question is - what kind of first aid are you able to give before it turns into imitating a doctor?

Doing a blood transfusion seems over the line, but she did say “we” during that sentence so she may be referring to the doctors/nurses actually doing that part.

Hooking up an IV is pretty straight forward and not something that someone that you need to go to medical school for.

 

[beatrixpotter]

Yeah, I think the woman grossly overstepped. But I read nothing to indicate she killed 100 children. And I don't know what to think about someone performing life saving treatment on dying children if there were no medical staff around at the time. Were there? Was she deliberately taking children away from otherwise accessible medical treatment? Like I take my kids bg if necessary. Blood transfusion seems crazy honestly. But I don't know the circumstances.

Suing people over not the best medical treatment when the government isn't doing anything themselves seems insane. Is less than ideal medical treatment worse than none and the children just dying of malnutrition? I don't like the white savior angle. I pretty much never donate to those kids who want to call a trip to a foreign country "missionary" work when they could get better results by just donating to people living and working there. But I find it offensive to act like any white person coming in there to help just basically has some savior complex. Who cares what color they are. Are the needs being met with no one from the outside coming in or not? Was this woman taking children away from proper care and nutrition or just overstepping while trying to save children in genuine need of help?

There is a world of different between taking kids out of good hospitals to just essentially practice medicine on your own for the heck of it. And someone just trying to save a kid's life who might die without something they weren't specifically degreed to do. Maybe she really was just some borderline psychopath with a god complex. I don't know. But it's a huge stretch to call every child who died in her care murder under the circumstances I read.

 

[amymarie]

OMG, that article is amazing

She was doing BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS on little children. She had NO medical training, other than youtube vidoes

White Saviour Complex is right. She should have been put in jail

Where do you see anything about her learning from YouTube videos? Do you have an article to support this, because I didn’t see that in the article you posted?

She has a staff of doctors and nurses, and it sounds like they trained her to help out.

 

[Jax49]

Where do you see anything about her learning from YouTube videos? Do you have an article to support this, because I didn’t see that in the article you posted?

She has a staff of doctors and nurses, and it sounds like they trained her to help out.

"Pictured is Renee Bach, an American missionary who moved to Jinja, Uganda at age 18. She is not a Doctor, not a Nurse. With no formal medical training, Ms. Bach started experimenting with medical procedures she’d learn from Youtube."

photo caption

bbm

 

[amymarie]

"Pictured is Renee Bach, an American missionary who moved to Jinja, Uganda at age 18. She is not a Doctor, not a Nurse. With no formal medical training, Ms. Bach started experimenting with medical procedures she’d learn from Youtube."

photo caption

bbm

Thanks, I didn’t read the photo captions before. However, I’m not sure how much credibility I would give to the author of that article, which was written by “No White Saviors”. Seems like they may have their own agenda there.

 

[Ksprincess2]

American With No Medical Training Ran Center For Malnourished Ugandan Kids. 105 Died

Lots of info in this new NPR article including an interview with Renee Bach.

 

[kaen]

Pretty stunning and, definitely, a huge ongoing issue of people operating out their expertise.

"Yet from 2010 through 2015, Bach says, she took in 940 severely malnourished children. And 105 of them died.

Now Bach is being sued in Ugandan civil court."
American With No Medical Training Ran Center For Malnourished Ugandan Kids. 105 Died

 

[beatrixpotter]

Wow. That article was enlightening and gave a lot more info on the background of this case. It sounds like it was a massive ego trip for Bach. I don't doubt she set out to help. But it sounds like it was definitely a case of "These people have no one else so I'm called by God to help them". And she just took one risky step after another figuring she could get away with it because it's just Uganda and full of all these poor people who need her. :/

I was giving her more of a benefit of the doubt when I first started reading this thread.

 

[IceIce9]

Pretty stunning and, definitely, a huge ongoing issue of people operating out their expertise.

"Yet from 2010 through 2015, Bach says, she took in 940 severely malnourished children. And 105 of them died.

Now Bach is being sued in Ugandan civil court."
American With No Medical Training Ran Center For Malnourished Ugandan Kids. 105 Died

I just finished listening to a podcast about Renee Bach. While she didn’t have medical training herself she did hire nurses and a doctor to work there.

And when sick children were brought in with problems the mission was not equipped to treat, they sent them to clinics or a hospital.

She began her mission with the simple desire to feed malnourished children. Is it possible that she began her mission with good intentions? And then became overwhelmed and got in over her head?

Definitely that organization “No White Saviors” has an agenda. On the podcast one of the founders of the organization stated that no white person could actually care about black children, and it was all about white guilt.