Canada - Ezekiel Stephan, 19 mos, dies of meningitis, 13 March 2012

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Toddler Dies After Anti-Vaxxer Parents Said to Treat Meningitis With Maple Syrup
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When Ezekiel Stephan became ill in 2012 his parents allegedly didn't take him to a doctor.

The 19-month-old boy from Alberta, Canada, was reportedly treated at home by his parents, David and Collet. The Stephans pursued a treatment of natural supplements including whey protein,

ginger root, olive leaf extract, horse radish root, juice, frozen berries and water with maple syrup. According to reports, they pointedly refused to seek medical treatment even as their son's

condition worsened, and he became "lethargic" and "stiff," the Canadian Broadcast Corporation reported. The boy was only airlifted to a hospital once he stopped breathing.


Ezekiel died five days after arriving at a hospital for treatment in Calgary. Doctors informed the parents that the cause was meningitis. The story was reported by the CBC — though the details of

the account have been disputed by the Stephans family.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/toddler-dies-anti-vaxxer-parents-154300579.html​
 
Imo, the above article, written by the father, is all about the father. His financial problems (seems to take up about 80% or more of the article), his decisions not to have his son treated by a doctor, his feelings - me, me, me.

Mom strikes me as being just as self-absorbed imo - she calls a nurse to the home for advice, then ignores the advice to take him to a doctor to test for meningitis.

Poor kid didn't have a prayer at surviving a treatable illness.
 
This is a tough one for me to read. My son had meningitis as a toddler. Most frightening experience for our entire family. He spent a week in the PICU, a very sick little boy, getting all the best care the experts could offer. His screams of pain, the scary high fever, the helpless feeling. I cannot wrap my head around not seeking treatment.
 
I also had meningitis, as a child. Being in the fourth grade at the time, I was old enough to remember the majority of the experience. It was very painful and very quickly debilitating. That poor baby! Not sure about current times, but back then (early 80s), it was diagnosed via spinal tap.

The first hospital, that my mother took me to, diagnosed it as a flu. I ended up losing all feeling in my legs; and was essentially, paralyzed. My mother called a neighbor's husband to carry me to the car, in the middle of the night, and took me to the next town to another hospital where a spinal tap was performed. It's a miracle, and I'm very fortunate, the paralysis did not last and I have no long term damage. Many people aren't so fortunate, including this poor baby.
 
Even if you leave aside the whole issue of vaccination, this family did not do right by this child. You would think that if your child died under these circumstances, it would cause you to re-think your actions, re-think your total reliance on naturopathic medicine and complete rejection of all conventional medicine. No, this family contemplated suing others for the poor outcome of their son's illness. I don't see any ownership whatsoever by this father for what happened to his son. I really fear for their other children. Hopefully they stay healthy, because they sure can't count on their parents to get them professional help if ever they need it.
 
As a pediatric critical care nurse, this (and co-sleeping deaths) make me want to hurt someone. And by 'someone' I mean the parents.

Meningitis can be a killer. Without revealing too much detail- we had an EXTREMELY similar case two summers ago. This brings back those same feelings of helpless rage.
 
They should of taken the meningitis info from the friend nurse seriously. If someone said it could be a possibility I would already be in my car. The thing is, they could of taken him to the hospital and see what the doctors had to say.

The write up from the dad was really hard to read. I'm rereading it, and I agree with Woodland.
 
Idiots!!! Maple Syrup, really??? :banghead::banghead::banghead:prosecute them for Child Abuse, this was a preventable death!
 
A family friend and registered nurse testified Wednesday that she told Ezekiel's mother he may have viral meningitis.

"I think you should take him to see a doctor," she testified as having said on March 11, 2012.

Instead, the couple decided to take him to a naturopath. Ezekiel's body was so stiff from illness he couldn't sit in his car seat, and had to lie on the floor of his parents' car as they drove to pick up echinacea for him.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/03/14/ezekiel-stephan_n_9462596.html


Echinacea -

Echinacea /ˌɛkᵻˈneɪʃiə/[1] is a genus, or group of herbaceous flowering plants in the daisy family. The Echinacea genus has nine species, which are commonly called purple coneflowers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echinacea

I grow this @$%* in my gardens - it has never occurred to me to consume it.
 
Woodland said:
A family friend and registered nurse testified Wednesday that she told Ezekiel's mother he may have viral meningitis.

"I think you should take him to see a doctor," she testified as having said on March 11, 2012.

Instead, the couple decided to take him to a naturopath. Ezekiel's body was so stiff from illness he couldn't sit in his car seat, and had to lie on the floor of his parents' car as they drove to pick up echinacea for him.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/03/14/ezekiel-stephan_n_9462596.html


Echinacea -

Echinacea /ˌɛkᵻˈneɪʃiə/[1] is a genus, or group of herbaceous flowering plants in the daisy family. The Echinacea genus has nine species, which are commonly called purple coneflowers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echinacea

I grow this @$%* in my gardens - it has never occurred to me to consume it.
Click to expand...
Echinacea is supposed to help colds, not meningitis!!!
 
The unfortunate truth that Picazo omits is that meningitis is an illness that can strike suddenly and kill within a day or two. Usually, meningitis symptoms progress very quickly from bad to worse.

Ezekiel’s waxing and waning cold symptoms are not typical, and might indeed have indicated nothing other than a cold at that time...

So far at the trial, none of the prosecution’s doctors has claimed that they could have definitively diagnosed meningitis from the symptoms Ezekiel exhibited at the time. None has claimed that Ezekiel could definitely have been saved, even if he had received aggressive treatment.
Click to expand...

http://m.huffpost.com/ca/entry/9585100
 
Problem is though, the childs symptoms went on for weeks, they treated him at home with 'stuff' for weeks, not knowing what was wrong.

That's negligence imo, on top of the fact the child had never been vaccinated. The parents did not know what was wrong, nor did they seek a medical opinion. At the very least, if he was returned to a doctor once or twice, over a period of weeks for persistent symptoms, who knows what would have happened.
 
The unfortunate truth that Picazo omits is that meningitis is an illness that can strike suddenly and kill within a day or two. Usually, meningitis symptoms progress very quickly from bad to worse.

Ezekiel’s waxing and waning cold symptoms are not typical, and might indeed have indicated nothing other than a cold at that time...

So far at the trial, none of the prosecution’s doctors has claimed that they could have definitively diagnosed meningitis from the symptoms Ezekiel exhibited at the time. None has claimed that Ezekiel could definitely have been saved, even if he had received aggressive treatment.
Click to expand...

If even a nurse suspected meningitis, a doctor most likely would have figured it out. No disrespect to nurses (I am an RN). No guarantee they could have saved him, but he would have had a hell of lot better odds than treating it with maple syrup.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/meningitis/diagnosis-treatment/diagnosis/dxc-20169577
 
http://globalnews.ca/news/2656545/c...erta-couple-charged-in-sons-meningitis-death/

David and Collet Stephan sat intently Friday while their lawyer, Shawn Buckley, addressed the 12 people who will decide their fate...

When asking the jury to consider why Ezekiel died, he pointed out a number of things, including:

The Glenwood ambulance was not called to respond, according to multiple witness accounts;

The Cardston Ambulance was ill-equipped with the right-sized bag air mask and tube and that Ezekiel went without an airway for eight minutes and 11 seconds, according to paramedic testimony.

He also said in Dr. Anny Sauvageau’s opinion, the toddler had viral meningitis and died of what she called a “paramedic misadventure.”
Click to expand...

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/fortney-crown-gives-final-arguments-in-stephan-trial

It is not a trial for murder. It is not a trial for manslaughter. In fact, it doesn’t even hinge on the fact that a child died.

On Saturday morning in a Lethbridge courtroom, Crown prosecutor Lisa Weich began her closing arguments to a jury with the above reminder.

In her first words in a courtroom packed with family, friends and media, Weich made sure that all remembered what this highly emotional trial is about: whether or not Collet and David Stephan failed to provide the necessaries of life for 18-month-old Ezekiel Stephan.
Click to expand...
 
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