As a practicing surgeon, I like to keep my eye out for medical stories in the news. One story that caught my attention and the attention of the nation was that of Ezekiel Stephan, the one-year-old Canadian boy who died after contracting meningitis. It’s always heartbreaking when a child dies, but this story is gaining national headlines for another reason. See, Ezekiel’s parents are on trial for neglect and failing to provide him with timely medical attention.
We live in a era where there’s a growing divide between so-called “vaxxers” and “anti-vaxxers,” and the debate over what type of medical care should be forced or mandatory continues to draw evermore scrutiny. Ezekiel’s parents didn’t neglect him in the sense that they left him unattended in his room for four days – they simply decided holistic and natural remedies would be the best course of action. Parents certainly should have a say in how they child is raised, treated and cared for, but at what point does digging your heels into the ground to hold your beliefs in the face of fact-based, proven scientific methods cross the line into neglect? Instead of being treated with antibiotics and professional care, Ezekeil’s parents prescribed maple syrup and homemade smoothies containing hot pepper, ginger root and onions. After those treatments failed, the parents called a nurse friend to have her come look at Ezekiel, and she told them what convention wisdom suggests – Get him to a doctor, now. But it was too late for him, and he eventually succumbed to his condition.
Holistic Remedies
I’m not going to sit here and lambaste the parents. I want to get angry with them, because I’ve seen first-hand the wonders of modern medicine, but they are suffering, and I don’t wish to make them suffer any more. They lost a child, which is the worst stressor on the planet, and now they are on trial for negligence.
The fact of the matter is that at one point in time, all medicines, antibiotics and treatments were considered radical or unproven. But we tested these compounds, poured over decades of records, meticulously logged results and perfected these options to treat some of the more common maladies. Backed by medical science, we’ve been able to eradicate some diseases and cure illnesses that would have killed many back in the day. There certainly may be benefits to some of the ingredients in those smoothies, but none of them are backed by medical science, and they certainly haven’t been shown to treat meningitis.