Defence tells trial hospital, not neglect, caused child's death

Calgary•ajuryheard testimony Monday that a 14-month-old boy’s treatment in hospital, not malnutrition or an overwhelming infection, was to blame for the baby’s death.

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.

Jeromie Clark’s lawyer David Chow called Anny Sauvageau, Alberta’s former chief medical examiner, as an expert witness on Monday.

She contradicted testimony from the current chief medical examiner, Elizabeth Brooks-lim, that suggested John was malnourished and died of sepsis.

Sauvageau looked at John’s autopsy report, a neuropathologist’s report and medical records. She said the child is most likely to have died of an “overly aggressive correction” of the sodium in his blood.

The jury has already heard that doctors gave John saline fluids after his parents took him to a Calgary hospital on Nov. 28, 2013. He died the following day after suffering a seizure and two cardiac arrests.

Sauvageau testified John was given far too much fluid within an hour, which diluted his blood.

“No human body can go through that and adapt in an hour,” she said.

Sauvageau also suggested John’s small size was due to a hormonal issue rather than malnutrition.