Anti-Vax Parents Allegedly Treated Toddler’s Meningitis with Home Remedies, with Predictably Horrible Results

A pair of Canadian parents have pleaded “not guilty” to charges of failing to provide the necessities of life to their poor toddler son, who died four years ago after he developed meningitis and his anti-vaxxer, naturopathic-vitamin-shilling parents allegedly tried to treat him with “natural remedies” like whey protein and olive leaf extract and reportedly did not actually call an ambulance or seek medical treatment until after their son stopped breathing.

According to CBC, Ezekiel Stephan, the 19-month-old son of David and Collet Stephan, died in 2012 of meningitis. A recorded interview indicates that Collet Stephan told police that she and her husband had been informed by a family friend who was a nurse that she thought Ezekiel had meningitis. But even though they were literate adults with access to Google and had been informed that meningitis was a possible diagnosis, instead of taking their son to the doctor, they treated him as though he were a salad, or a starlet on a Master Cleanse, and gave him “home remedies” that allegedly included things like maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, mashed onion, garlic, and ginger.

I don’t know if “criminal idiocy” is a legal charge in Canada, but this degree of woo is negligent and irresponsible . I don’t care if you think Big Pharma invented the scientific method to bilk rubes out of spare change or that vaccines kill people (as a lot of people on the Stephans’ Facebook page are saying) or if you think that gluten causes autism, there is a point at which any reasonable adult would realize that mashed garlic was not working and call an actual doctor, and that point should occur long before a child stops breathing, but this couple allegedly waited for their son to stop breathing and fall unconscious before they called a damn ambulance.

The family reportedly told police that they preferred naturopathic remedies because of “negative experiences” with the medical system, CBC writes.

Not only did this couple allow their naturopathic woo to kill their own son, they appear to have learned literally nothing from this experience and still think of themselves as the victims. “Will we ever be free?” David Stephan wrote on their Facebook page, on which they are soliciting donations.

Also, they are allegedly packaging their homeopathic garbage to other families. The family allegedly runs a nutritional supplement company called Truehope Nutritional Support that reportedly sells vitamins and nutritional supplements that claim to be able to treat disorders including bipolar disorder, autism, ADHD, depression, and other problems. Everything about this is awful.

The Stephans appear to be very religious, but belief in God and belief in science are not mutually exclusive. If you believe in miracles, maybe God sends a doctor with loads of medical technology who is able to cure a disease that was a death sentence just a generation ago, and maybe that’s the miracle.