To pray or seek medical attention?

There is an organization called Children’s Healthcare Is a Legal Duty or CHILD Inc. It is a non-profit national membership organization established in 1983 to protect children from abusive religious and cultural practices, especially religion-based medical neglect. CHILD is also a member of the National Child Abuse Coalition.

I read several stories of children being sick or fatally hurt and the parents or guardian chose to not seek medical help. They chose to pray and trust their child to Christian Science practitioner; which believes that as long as you pray everything will be OK. In one instance a child needed a blood transplant and his guardian would not allow him to get it because of the belief he would be impure if he did. She also believed that god was using her child as a learning tool for the hospital to learn to treat the disease he had by prayer. In another instance a two year old boy died from being stung over 430 times by wasps. Instead of taking him to the hospital or call 911 they chose to ask children and fellow church members to pray for him. After 7 hours after the attack they decided to call EMT’s. After they arrived his parents admitted that the boy had been unresponsive for 30-45 minutes. A pediatrician in Orlando told the press that the toddler may have been able to survive if he would have received medical treatment.

Now I am not saying people shouldn't pray. I pray every night. However, when my kids need medical attention I take them to the hospital. My nephew almost drowned 1 ½ years ago and believe me I prayed my heart out. But we also called 911 and he was rushed to the hospital. The hospital was able to stabilize him and then he was taken by helicopter to St. John’s in Springfield, MO. He was there for 10 days in ICU and finally made a full recovery. He is a healthy three almost four year old now. But I believe if we wouldn’t have called 911 when we did he would not have survived. The doctors did all they could and no matter what doctors do or don’t do it is always Gods decision rather what they do helps or not. A doctor can do everything in the world but if it is time for that child or even adult to go then God will take them home. But I believe the child or person should have the option to seek medical attention and have the option to live.

I am sure that there are a lot of people out there that would disagree with me but I feel if God intended us to rely solely on prayer then he would not have given us the knowledge of medicine.