GUILTY Canada - Alexandru Radita, 15, dies of extreme neglect, Calgary, 7 May 2013

The five-week jury trial was set for May 16, 2016, for Rodica Radita and Emil Marian Radita, just a month after they were ordered to stand trial following a preliminary hearing.

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Police confirmed the deceased had been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes several years earlier, prior to moving from B.C. to Alberta, and believe his parents failed to provide him with the necessary treatment.
The teen’s health deteriorated, he was confined to his room and later died, say police.

The “extreme” circumstances and length of time the alleged neglect went on for are what led to the conclusion first-degree murder charges were warranted.

“This boy has suffered from long-term neglect to the point that he was unable to seek medical attention on his own and it is (the parents&#8217 responsibility to provide that for him,” said Homicide Staff Sgt. Grant Miller.

He said boy was home-schooled and didn’t have a family doctor in Alberta.

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In May, 2013, when paramedics found a 15-year-old in medical distress in his family's home in Citadel, Alexandru Radita weighed less than 18 kilograms — the average weight of a five-year-old.

Police said tests showed the boy, who had Type 1 diabetes, died from a bacterial infection caused by complications stemming from neglect and starvation...

Court documents show Rodica and Emil repeatedly refused to treat his illness, and at one point when the family was living in B.C., Alex was taken by social services for a year.

He was returned to his parents, who then moved to Alberta, where he never saw a doctor and never attended school.

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Alex was diagnosed with diabetes as toddler.

But the Raditas had a history of not treating their son's diabetes when they lived in B.C., according to a court document obtained by CBC News.

His condition landed him in the hospital several times when he was younger.

Child services in B.C. even seized Alex when he was four after he was admitted to hospital in grave condition...

Alex was kept in provincial care for a year before a judge ordered that he be returned to his family — a ruling made despite his social worker's fight to have him permanently removed from their care.

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The document, written by B.C.'s Judge J.G. Cohen, details how the parents didn't trust authorities or their son's diagnosis and mismanaged the disease. It outlines long periods of time when the child wasn't being properly treated or seeing a doctor...

In December 2000, the boy who was then two-years-old was brought to the Surrey Memorial Hospital in B.C. with ketoacidosis — a complication from untreated diabetes.

He was diagnosed with the disease and the family was instructed on how to care for their son. A home-care nurse visited regularly but AR's health problems were just beginning, according to the document.

His mother was required to do blood readings every day and report them to the B.C. Children's Hospital. After a few months, a doctor at the hospital became concerned that the readings were false.

AR was admitted to hospital again, this time for two weeks. The parents were shown again how to handle the disease.

For several months, the parents followed up with a doctor, but refused to attend diabetes clinics. They eventually stopped bringing him to the doctor.

Two years later, in October 2003, he was admitted to the intensive care unit at the B.C. Children's Hospital for being extremely malnourished and losing hair.

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an immigrant mother and father distrustful of the medical system, who saw physicians focusing on only one illness, when it was clear to them their boy had many.
“They are accusing us that we have medically neglected our son, and pursuing Family Services to take our son from us,” reads a letter dated Dec. 27, 2003, reportedly written by the boy’s father to the United Nations Commission for Human Rights.
“If Everything HAD been done Properly In the Beginning we SHOULD not be here today.”
Repeated visits to the hospital, and disagreements over what was wrong with the boy — his parents second-guessing the doctors and making their own diagnoses — finally led to the ailing Alexandru being taken into foster care by the B.C. government.
That was Dec. 2003, and the next year saw his family — including seven siblings — in a very public battle for custody, with stories on the fight appearing in Romanian community forums.

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The teen's health declined and he was confined to his room, bedridden and wearing diapers when he was found, according to police.
He was home-schooled so outsiders did not see his deterioration, police said.

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A teenage boy found "horrifically emaciated" would have likely been "profoundly lonely" during the period leading up to his death, says the prosecutor at the Calgary trial of the boy's parents...

Once in Calgary, Alex was home-schooled, and was never taken to see a doctor. He had no contact with the world outside his home so nobody noticed his deteriorating condition, according to police.

"His parents set themselves up to be the sole keepers of his life and then they withheld that life by denying him the very things that he needed to live; insulin, nutrition and medical care," said Pepper...

The Crown will call more than 30 witnesses over the course of the five-week Court of Queen's Bench trial.

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Photos of Alex Radita at his 15th birthday party in January 2013 show he was emaciated more than three months before being found dead at home, weighing just 37 pounds.

Court of Queen's Bench Justice Karen Horner, who is presiding over the first-degree murder trial of Alex's parents — Rodica, 53, and Emil Radita, 59, granted a request by the CBC and other media for the photos to be released.

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Family members prayed over a starved, diabetic teen for about two hours after he stopped breathing before calling for help, a medical investigator testified Wednesday...

Mitchell said she was shocked at the state of Alexandru's body.

"He basically looked like a skeleton with skin," she said. "His skull was very, very bony. You could count every rib. You could see every rib. His arms were extremely skinny as were his legs. He had open and dried lesions all over his body."

The first police officer called to the family home said there were about 20 people there when he arrived.

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Forensic pathologist Dr. Jeffery Gofton detailed his examination of Alexandru Radita at the trial of his parents on Thursday...

He said the boy’s body was covered with ulcers — mostly pressure sores — although one on his neck was so bad the boy’s salivary glands were exposed...

Gofton said a total of 44 ulcers were found on Alexandru’s body — some had healed but the majority had not. The neck wound was the worst... “The neck wound itself is an emergency. When that appears, that needs a medical, if not surgical, treatment”...

Gofton said it appears most of the teeth had rotted and there was no sign of any dental work.

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