Man Dies After Refusing Treatment For Religious Reasons, Wife Keeps Body Around For Months

51 year old Peter Wald died sometime in March 2013, of a foot infection that he refused to treat because he believed the power of prayer would heal him. It didn’t. By all accounts, this was a routine infection, complicated by diabetes, that could have been easily treated with antibiotics.

Less than a century ago, prayer, indeed, would have been the only option for Mr. Wald. Â President Calvin Coolidge’s 16 year old son, Calvin Coolidge Jr, died in 1924, one week after developing a blister on his foot while playing tennis. Â In the coming decades, however, Sulfa, and then a slew of other antibiotics, transformed these infections from killers into mere nuisances.

Sadly, Mr. Wald’s wife, Kaling, kept the body around for months, praying that her husband be resurrected. She sealed him in the room where he died and his body suffered from advanced decomposition and was gnawed on by rodents. Six children and seven other adults lived in the house.

Mrs. Wald

“pleaded guilty to failing to notify police or the coroner that Peter Wald had died from an illness that wasnâ€ t being treated. She receivedÂ a suspended sentence and an order to get counselling as well as 18 months probation.”

We hope that she, and the others involved in this tragic circumstance receive the help that they need and also that they avail themselves of the wonders of modern medicine in the future. Unfortunately for Mr. Wald, it’s too late.