Parents accused of letting son waste away

Jennifer and Jeromie Clark ignored the obvious signs their young son was dying until it was too late for doctors to save him, a jury was told Monday.

In his opening address, Crown prosecutor Shane Parker detailed the evidence he expects will show the Clarks are guilty of criminal negligence causing the death of their son, John. Parker said the 14-month-old was in severe medical distress when his parents finally took him to Foothills Medical Centre on Nov. 28, 2013.

Despite the efforts of doctors there and at Alberta Children’s Hospital, the boy died the next day.

“John’s parents … ignored the obvious and urgent need for John to see a real doctor much sooner,” the prosecutor said.

Parker said the boy, who only weighed 20 pounds, had an inflamed rash on 70 per cent of his body.

“Four of his toes were turning purple/ black, or in layman’s terms, gangrene,” he said. “John died 21 hours into his hospital stay from what should have been a treatable staph infection.”

He said the parents incorrectly believed the rash was eczema, but it was “a skin reaction to malnutrition. It’s the Crown’s theory that these defendants did not feed John properly.”

Parker said the boy was too small and weak to fight off his illness, adding the Clarks — who also face a charge of failing to provide the necessaries of life — were required to ensure the child received proper medical care.

“As his parents, they owed him that small, but incredibly important duty.”

He said evidence will show in- ternet searches on the family’s computer were done on natural remedies.

And, he said, the boy was in such bad shape he was already in the stage of dying when he was transferred from Foothills to Alberta Children’s Hospital.

Meanwhile, an emergency room pediatrician said he “was very worried,” from the moment he saw the child at Foothills.

“John was quite pale and actually seemed lifeless,” Dr. Ping-Wei Chen told co-prosecutor Jennifer Crews. “I was concerned that he was in shock.”

But under cross-examination by the father’s lawyer, David Chow, Chen acknowledged there were also positive signs in the child’s medical appearance.

And Chen agreed with Chow that major trauma centres like Foothills can be “petri” dishes of biohazards, where patients arrive with all kinds of infections.

Chow asked if any of the needles used to attempt to set up an IV on the child were tested for bacteria, or staph infections.

“It’s assumed to be sterile out of the package,” the doctor said.

John died 21 hours into his hospital stay from what should have been a treatable staph infection.