Alberta Father not convinced meningitis was cause of his son’s death

For the third straight day, David Stephan made his way to the witness box in Lethbridge Provincial Court to be cross-examined by Crown prosecutor Clayton Giles.

David Stephan and his wife Collet are on trial on connection with the death of their 18-month-old young son, Ezekiel, who died of meningitis in 2012.

The toddler was sick for about two and a half weeks, but the couple never took him to a doctor until he stopped breathing — and they rushed him to a hospital near their home in Glenwood, Alberta.

“Hindsight is 20/20,” Stephan testified. “Looking back at it … had I known that this was going to take place, I would have been the first person to be advocating something else. Nobody would want an outcome like this as a parent.”

At the hospital, the first physician to examine the child in his short life shared a CT scan with the couple and explained that he had suffered brain damage.

Ezekiel was flown to a larger hospital in Calgary, where he was briefly revived, but doctors said he was probably already brain dead at that point, and he was taken off life support March 18, 2012, five days after he arrived.

David and Collet Stephan, who own a nutritional supplement company, were charged with failing to provide the necessities of life after investigators learned they had not sought any medical treatment but instead attempted to treat his life-threatening illness with natural remedies — such as olive leaf extract, hot pepper and horseradish smoothies, water with maple syrup and juice with frozen berries.

Stephan said he didn’t mistrust medical doctors and said things like antibiotics are a “Godsend.” He also said looking back he would do things differently.

“Hindsight’s 20-20 and looking back at it had I known that this was going to take place, you’ve got to know that I would be the first person advocating something else.”

Stephan said he’s not 100 per cent convinced Ezekiel died of meningitis but acknowledges “it’s very likely” though he added there are still come elements of confusion about the case.

Collet Stephan is expected to be the next witness called by the defence.

Agencies/Canadajournal