Parents on trial in staph death of toddler

Child had never been to doctor in 14 months of life

CALGARY• Jennifer and Jeromie Clark ignored the ob- vious signs their 14- month old son was dying until it was too late for doctors to save him, a jury was told Monday.

The jury heard the boy was on the verge of death when he was taken to hospital five years ago — the first time he had ever seen a doctor.

Jeromie and Jennifer Clark have pleaded not guilty to criminal negligence causing death and failure to provide the necessaries of life for their son John.

Prosecutor Shane Parker said the Clarks were required to ensure their son received proper medical care.

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

He said evidence would show internet searches on the family’s computer were done on natural remedies.

Jennifer Clark wore a hat which covered part of her face and was barely audible as she stated her plea. She and her husband clasped hands as they stood in the prisoner’s dock.

Police began investigating after the boy was brought to hospital by his parents on Nov. 28, 2013.

“John was on death’s doorstep. This was the first time John had seen a doctor in his 14 months on this earth,” Parker told the jury in his opening statement Monday.

Court heard the child was in septic shock with a staph infection and his organs were shutting down. He had a rash covering 70 per cent of his body, which Parker said his parents thought was eczema but was actually caused by malnutrition.

“The rash that covered John’s body, head to toe, was misdiagnosed by the defendants — it was not eczema,” Parker said.

Instead, he said, the injury was “a skin reaction to malnutrition.”

“It’s the Crown’s theory that these defendants did not feed John properly,” he said.

Four of John’s toes were blue-black, he said. John weighed just 20 pounds.

Parker said the child did not have a fever. It was more serious — his temperature was abnormally low.

“John was in obvious medical distress. He was withering,” he said.

Parker said the boy was too small and weak to fight off his illness.

Despite the efforts of doctors 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.

The prosecutor said John was born at home, had never been vaccinated and hadn’t been fed properly.

He said an autopsy showed his major organs weighed less than those of babies half his age.

“His immune system was so compromised from a lack of vitamins and minerals,” Parker said. “John was too small and too weak to fight.”

The infection should have been treatable, Parker said.

“At any point in time, the parents could have stopped the dominoes.”

Myla Maillous-Gosselin, a triage nurse at Foothills Medical Centre the afternoon John was taken there, said she was alarmed by the colour of the baby’s toes.

“I wanted a physician to see him immediately.”

Paramedic Jessica Kerr testified that when she arrived to take John by ambulance from Foothills to the Alberta Children’s Hospital, her initial observation was “that he was a very sick little boy.”

Wiping away tears, Kerr said John was lethargic and quiet and that his heart rate and body temperature were low. She said there was also something wrong with his skin.

“It looked like he had been burned from head to toe.”

She said he was only wearing a diaper.

Emergency physician Ping-Wei Chen said that the boy was critically ill when he and his parents arrived at Foothills.

“John was quite pale and appeared quite lifeless,” he said.

Usually when patients are fighting an infection, their temperature and heart rate rise, Chen said. But both were abnormally low in John’s case — a sign his ailment was in its final stages.

“That’s often a harbinger of very bad things happening quickly,” Chen told court.

He diagnosed John with septic shock, most likely to have stemmed from an infection of the skin.

Chen said he was struck by John’s subdued reaction to painful needles.

“The usual response for a child is screaming bloody murder.”

Chen said both parents were calm and quiet.

David Stephan, whose 19-month-old son Ezekiel died from meningitis in 2012, was in the public gallery with a notebook.

He and his wife, Collet, were found guilty in 2016 of failing to provide the necessaries of life. Their trial in Lethbridge, Alta., heard evidence that they treated the boy with garlic, onion and horseradish rather than take him to a doctor.

The Supreme Court ordered a new trial for the couple in May, saying the original trial judge did not properly instruct jurors.

HIS IMMUNE SYSTEM WASSO COMPROMISED FROM A LACK OF VITAMINS AND MINERALS