FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Tech

‘Vaxxed’ Director Interviews Parents Who Treated Dying Son with Echinacea

As the couple begins a sentencing hearing, they’re rallying supporters to back them up
Photo: Prayers For Ezekiel/Facebook

Two anti-vaxxer parents who were convicted of failing to provide the necessaries of life to their toddler son are publicly blaming the ambulance for his death from meningitis. The case has drawn international attention, raising questions about parental rights and the risks of alternative medicine.

Despite their conviction, the couple maintains they did nothing wrong and instead point the finger at the ambulance that picked up their son before his death in a new interview with Del Bigtree, the director of Vaxxed, a controversial anti-vaxxer documentary.

Advertisement

"He ended up in an ambulance that didn't have the right equipment, and subsequently ended up brain dead," David Stephan, the boy's father, said in the video interview this week. "The ambulance that ended up taking our son off our hands after he was getting CPR for a little while, while we were in transit, did not have the proper equipment and so he went for over eight minutes without any oxygen whatsoever, which is what was found to be the cause of brain death."

Stephan and his wife Collet, who have three other children, began a sentencing hearing Thursday for their April convictions. The Alberta couple faces up to five years in prison, but the judge's final decision isn't expected for several months. The couple was convicted of failing to provide the necessities of life after Ezekiel, their 19-month-old son, died in 2012.

According to the trial, the toddler had gotten sick on February 27 with a stuffy nose, trouble breathing, and a barking cough. The Stephans consulted a family friend, who is a nurse, and she suggested Ezekiel might have croup—a respiratory infection that can usually be treated at home. The Stephans, who do not vaccinate their children and are proponents of homeopathy and natural remedies (David's family owns a multi-million dollar alternative treatment company), did not take Ezekiel to a doctor. Instead, they treated the child with natural remedies, including smoothies of hot pepper, horseradish, ginger root and onion.

Over the next two weeks, Ezekiel started to recover, but suddenly took a turn for the worse on March 12, his body so stiff that his back was arching. Their nurse friend testified in court that she told the family at that time he might have meningitis and to consult a doctor. Collet even Googled symptoms of meningitis and testified that it looked like he had "95 percent" of them, but the couple still didn't take the child to a doctor, opting instead to pick up a natural tincture from a naturopath in town.

On the evening of March 13, Ezekiel was having such trouble breathing that the Stephans decided to call 911. Since they lived far out in the countryside, and since Ezekiel was still breathing, the couple decided to drive to the hospital rather than wait for an ambulance. On the way, Ezekiel stopped breathing, and his mother gave him CPR while his father called 911 again and asked for an ambulance to meet them. When they met with the ambulance, he hadn't been breathing for 10 minutes and was blue.

In court, a paramedic testified that the oxygen mask in the ambulance was too big for the child and the breathing tube was only partially effective because it was also the wrong size. A medical expert for the defense argued that Ezekiel would have survived had the ambulance been properly equipped. Now, the Stephans are still using that defense as they await their sentencing and ask fellow anti-vaxxers to come support them at the courthouse. Bigtree, whose film was pulled from the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year, has become a champion for the anti-vaxxer community. He posted the interview to his Facebook page, encouraging the Stephans and ensuring them in the video "we're all rooting for you."

"It's becoming quite a parental rights issue for medical choice, for how we need to treat our children," David said in the video. "Ultimately it comes down to whether we have the right to vaccinate or not vaccinate without being held liable. Or whether or not we have to rush our children to the doctor every time they even get just the sniffles in fear that something may just randomly happen and then we're held liable."