Herbal remedies worked at times, pediatrician tells trial

NEGLIGENCE TRIAL TO CONTINUE THROUGH MONTH

A Calgary pediatrician wasn’t surprised to learn a former southern Alberta mother had to feed her 18-month-old child with an eye dropper only days before the child died in 2012.

Dr. Jennifer Ray D’Mello testified Friday in the negligence trial against David and Collet Stephan, that it would not be uncommon for a parent to “resort” to using an eyedropper if a child, especially a young child, was sick and didn’t want to eat.

And, D’Mello said, the herbal remedies the Stephans fed their young son Ezekiel during his illness seemed, at least at times, to work, particularly on March 5, 2012, about a week after he became sick.

“He was well enough to go to preschool that day,” D’Mello said.

But on March 12 Ezekiel was rushed to the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary after he stopped breathing. He died about a week later of bacterial meningitis.

D’Mello, who works in the hospital’s emergency department and provides consultations with child-abuse services, examined the toddler March 15. The child was already brain dead and comatose by then, and he was on a ventilator.

During an interview with Collet, D’Mello learned the parents had treated their son with herbal remedies for what they initially believed was only croup. Collet boosted the child’s routine feedings with various herbal ingredients and fed him with an eyedropper — when he didn’t want to eat — to ensure he stayed hydrated.

Within a week he had improved enough to go to preschool, and Collet decided the extra herbal supplements were no longer necessary. But a day later he was once again lethargic and only laid in bed, so he was put back on the supplements. The next day he once again seemed better.

That was the routine until March 11 when Ezekiel’s condition grew worse again and a nurse friend suggested he might have viral meningitis and recommended the child be taken to a doctor. They researched treatments online and the following day Dave and Collet picked up an echinacea mixture from a naturopath in Lethbridge. By then, however, Ezekiel was too stiff to sit in his car seat and had to lie on a mattress in the Stephan’s vehicle as they drove to Lethbridge.

During her interview with the couple, D’Mello said it was apparent Collet and Dave were attentive to Ezekiel while he was ill. That is true, suggested the couple’s lawyer, despite how others might feel about the parents’ nutritional regime.

“They are being very attentive,” D’Mello agreed.

Defence lawyer Sean Buckley cross-examined D’Mello for several hours Friday before the Crown was expected to call one more witness — the naturopath from which the Stephan’s purchased the echinacea.

The trial is scheduled to resume Monday in Lethbridge Court of Queen’s Bench and is expected to run at least until March 24.