Tuesday, February 11, 1997
Woman on trial for withholding medicine from
daughter
By RICHARD HORN / Staff Writer
A native of Peru went on trial Monday accused of child abuse
for withholding medicine from her epileptic daughter, causing
life-threatening seizures.
Luisa Gallegos Barbee, 41, is charged with refusing to give
the girl phenobarbital, which doctors prescribed to control convulsions.
The felony injury to a child charge was filed following a severe
October 1995 seizure in an Abilene hospital emergency room.
A similar charge is pending against her ex-husband, 56-year-old
Johnny Barbee, who currently has sole custody of the child, now
aged 3. The two have had a stormy, on-and-off relationship, evidence
showed.
"Looking back, Johnny and I made the wrong decision to
stop giving (the child) her medication," Mrs. Barbee said
in a signed statement read in court. "If I could do it all
over again, I would never have stopped giving her the medicine."
It appears to be the first time in Taylor County a parent has
gone to trial on criminal charges for withholding medicine from
a child.
The state alleges Mrs. Barbee repeatedly refused to follow
physicians' directions or work with child welfare officials to
improve care for her developmentally delayed little girl.
Her defense, however, says the woman, who speaks rough English
and has received treatment for mental illness, did not intentionally
withhold medicine and contends Johnny Barbee played a much larger
role in the situation than the prosecution claims.
Mrs. Barbee has declined a jury trial, meaning 104th District
Judge Billy John Edwards will decide her fate and set any punishment.
If he rules she knowingly and intentionally withheld the medication,
she faces from five to 99 years or life in prison. She is, however,
eligible for probation.
Luisa and Johnny Barbee were married in 1977, court records
show. Their daughter was born in Abilene on July 6, 1993.
Though no problems were apparent on an initial doctor's visit,
it soon became clear the child has epilepsy, meaning she has seizures
for which there are no evident medical causes.
Her pediatrician prescribed phenobarbital to prevent the seizures,
though evidence Monday showed that on several instances the child
was not receiving the drug. Once in 1994, following a serious
seizure episode, the child was transported to Cook's Children's
Hospital in Fort Worth, where additional concerns were expressed
about the parents' failure to give medicine.
In 1994 the child was placed in the care of Johnny Barbee,
testimony showed. But that situation didn't last, according to
Mrs. Barbee's police statement, which officers said they reviewed
with her in Spanish.
Because Johnny Barbee couldn't take care of the child himself,
she said, she moved back in with them in August 1994.
"Johnny and I got low on money," her statement said.
"We couldn't afford medicine. We talked about her. She had
been fine since she got out of the hospital. We decided to stop
giving her medication. She did fine for about three months.
In August 1995, her statement said, she left Johnny Barbee
and took her daughter with her.
"About two or three weeks later she started getting sick,
she was throwing up," the statement said.
She took the child to Hendrick Medical Center on October 7,
telling doctors the child had chills from fever. But the emergency
room physician, Dr. S. Jeffrey Jackson, recognized it as a seizure,
he testified, describing the child's "wandering eye gaze"
and jerking of her arms and legs.
Her pediatrician, Dr. Gregory Tuegel, testified he had spoken
many times before to Mrs. Barbee about the need to give the medicine
as prescribed and had spoken with child welfare workers, as well,
about concerns the child's home care was not sufficient.
He described the child as "quite significantly developmentally
delayed. At the age of 9 months, he said, she had the development
of a 3-month-old, and he attributed the problem to her environment
as well as possible brain damage from seizures.
An investigator from the state's local child protective services
office told the court she and other officials tried to work with
Mrs. Barbee. But she said the woman refused an offer of public
housing and declined to enroll in a state nutrition program for
children or seek Social Security disability aid for her daughter.
Mrs. Barbee fought with her husband when he had care over the
child, the investigator said.
The Barbees were divorced last November.
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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