Urinary Tract Infection ?

The death of a 16-year-old Oregon boy being treated by a faith healer could have easily been prevented according to a state medical examiner.

The 16-year-old member of a faith healing church died of uremic heart failure caused by a stricture in his urinary tract, according to autopsy results.

The condition could have been treated with a catheter in a routine outpatient procedure.

Instead, 16-year-old Neal Beagley’s urinary tract became inflamed and closed off.

He was unable to urinate, which made his bladder and kidneys stop functioning, the autopsy showed.

Toxins backed up into his blood stream.

Beagley had started complaining about stomach aches and shortness of breath last week.

The family told police he did not want medical attention.

Gladstone police said relatives and church members told them the teenager refused treatment for the illness, as he was entitled to do under Oregon law.

The family belongs to the Oregon City Followers of Christ Church.

Like all members of the religious order, Beagley did not receive medical care.

His condition worsened Sunday and members of the church gathered for prayer, Benton said.

The church is a fundamentalist Christian denomination that recently made headlines after two members were arrested and accused of using prayer instead of medical care to try to cure their deathly ill daughter.

In March, the boy’s 15-month-old cousin, Ava Worthington, died at home from bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection.

Her parents, Carl and Raylene Worthington, also failed to contact a doctor and are awaiting trial on criminal charges in her death.

Oregon lawmakers passed new laws striking down legal shields for faith-healing parents after several children from the Followers of Christ church died in the 1990s.

The Oregon City church is not ociated with a mainstream denomination.

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