Prosecutors in the Raylene and Carl Brent Worthington trial rested their case this afternoon after calling the last of three pediatricians who offered opinions about the medical conditions that caused the death of the couple's daughter.
The doctors, and the deputy medical examiner who conducted 15-month-old Ava Worthington's autopsy, generally agreed that the girl suffered from malnutrition, breathing difficulties and a weakened immune system.
She had a cyst that blocked her trachea and esophagus and she failed to grow or gain weight.
Although she started out a large newborn, her height and weight did not progress normally. When she died on March 2, 2008, her development was consistent with a four-month-old.
The Worthingtons, who believe in faith healing rather than secular medicine, are charged in Clackamas County Circuit Court with second-degree manslaughter and criminal mistreatment for failing to seek medical care for their daughter.
Their attorneys will rely on an Oregon City pediatrician and on an expert witness, Dr. Janice Ophoven, to counter the medical testimony. Ophoven, a pediatric forensic pathologist from Minnesota, regularly testifies in cases involving a child's abuse or death.
Last week she testified in the case of a South Dakota day-care center owner who was accused of causing severe head trauma to six-month-old boy. Ophoven was the only defense witness and the defendant was acquitted.
The Worthington's attorneys also will have to deal statements the Worthingtons made to investigators less than 48 hours after Ava died in March 2008.
The Worthingtons said they did not use doctors and would not have sought medical care for the girl. Instead, they relied on spiritual treatment including prayer, the laying on of hands and anointing with oil.
Several members of the Worthington's Oregon City church, the Followers of Christ, are expected testify. The witnesses include family members and possibly the Worthingtons.
Defense attorneys said that those who saw Ava during the last few days of her life believe she was getting better and that in the hours before she died, she was active, playful and happy. The defense also claimed that prosecution's medical witnesses were not provided police interviews with the parents and other eyewitness accounts that would have reflected the girl's condition.
Dr. Dan Leonhardt testified this morning that Ava Worthington was the victim of "long-standing medical neglect,"
Leonhardt, a pediatrician and child abuse expert at Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center, said Ava started life as a large and sturdy baby but when she died 15 months later her weight and height was so far off the growth chart that "there isn't even a line for it."
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