National Post (National Edition)
Mom found guilty in death of her son
Should ‘have brought Ryan in to see a doctor’
CALGARY • A Calgary woman who treated her son with holistic remedies before he died of a strep infection has been found guilty of criminal negligence causing death.
But the judge issued a judicial stay on a second charge against Tamara Lovett of failing to provide the necessaries of life.
Lovett gave her seven-yearold son Ryan dandelion tea and oil of oregano when he developed the infection that kept him bedridden for 10 days in March 2013.
The judge said Lovett “gambled away” her son’s life and any reasonable parent would not have waited until a child was near death to seek help. The judge said it should have been obvious to Lovett that Ryan was suffering from more than an ear infection and that he was on a “downward spiral.”
A doctor testified at Lovett’s trial that Ryan could have been saved if he had been given antibiotics.
Yet, the judge pointed out, it did not occur to Lovett that a doctor’s visit was in order.
“A reasonable parent would have brought Ryan in to see a doctor,” Justice Kristine Eidsvik said in her verdict Monday. “Ryan did not get better, but got worse and worse.”
Alberta’s acting chief medical examiner testified the boy’s body was full of group A streptococcus, which caused most of his major organs to deteriorate.
“Every organ in the body was starting to fail,” Dr. Elizabeth Brooks-Lim testified.
The medical examiner also said it appeared that Ryan had died well before paramedics responded to a panicstricken, early-morning 911 call from Lovett.
Lovett told police officers that she thought Ryan was suffering from the cold or flu but he seemed to be getting better. Lovett said she called 911 after Ryan began convulsing and collapsed.
The court heard Ryan’s birth was never registered and he didn’t have an Alberta health care card. Police said there was no record of Ryan ever being taken to the doctor for annual checkups or any treatment.
Lovett said Ryan was born with the assistance of a midwife and she had taken him to a naturopathic clinic for his medical needs.
During the trial, Dr. Taj Jadavji said the group A streptococcus which led to Ryan’s death could have been cured with antibiotics.
“Once they make the diagnosis ... it is a treatable condition with antibiotics,” Jadavji told Crown prosecutor Jonathan Hak. “They get better in 24 to 48 hours.”
“You could have prevented the death of this child if this child was seen by a physician earlier in the course of the infection,” Jadavji said.
Friends and family, including Lovett’s father, Donn, testified Ryan was a happy and well-cared-for boy.
“Tamara and Ryan were a unit, they were very tight,” Donn Lovett told his daughter’s trial.
Lovett’s lawyer, Alain Hepner, said there was no doubt Lovett did everything she could, but realized too late how sick Ryan really was.
“She believed in the remedies,” Hepner told the court. “She was wrong, her judgment was wrong and as such she waited to call the doctor but I say that doesn’t raise that conduct to criminal standard.”
But the prosecutor Hak said her “best was woefully inadequate.”
“The defendant’s failure to obtain medical care for Ryan directly caused his death. It was cruel and morally unforgivable, but more importantly legally unforgivable,” he told the judge.
“This case is not about whether alternative remedies are good or bad. Nor is it about the defendant’s views of western medicine. This case is squarely about the defendant’s lack of adequate care for Ryan, which led directly to his death.
“Ryan suffered greatly and needlessly as his life came to a close ... The defendant surely loved her son, but what kind of love puts her skewed beliefs ahead of the best interests of your child?”