‘Divine’ help put ahead of medicine

At the “faith healing” trial of two Rhawnhurst parents accused of turning to prayer instead of seeking medical attention for their dying 2-year-old son, a DHS social worker said yesterday that the boy’s father told him “they believe in divine intervention so their children do not go to a doctor or take medicine.”

Kenneth Dixon, who went to Herbert and Catherine Schaible’s home in the days after their son Kent’s Jan. 2009 death, said a nurse who accompanied him was permitted to examine all six Schaible children without interference. They were sent because someone called with concerns about the living six children’s well-being.

Herbert “said they used prayer as a way to get their kids healthy, that this was the first time [a child] died in their home with this method,” Dixon testified. “He said he tried to fight the Devil off but in the end, the Devil got into Kent. If it’s God’s will, they accept whatever happens.”

Noted forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht, who will testify for the defense today, is expected to refute an assistant medical examiner’s testimony that Kent’s bacteria pneumonia wouldn’t have been fatal had he received antibiotics or a particular vaccine.

Closing arguments are expected to begin after Wecht’s testimony.