Testimony from convicted father of teen in malnourishment death delayed until June

Police escort Emil and Rodica Radita to the CPS arrest processing unit in February 2014

A man convicted in the death of his malnourished son who died of sepsis and untreated diabetes will have to wait months for his chance to take the stand at an Alberta fatality inquiry.

Alexandru Radita was 15 and weighed 37 pounds when he was brought to a Calgary hospital in May 2013. His parents, Emil and Rodica Radita, were found guilty in 2017 of first-degree murder.

Emil Radita has been watching the proceeding from prison and has been asking questions throughout. He intends to testify, but the inquiry has been adjourned until June while the court decides if it wants to call one more witness.

He did not testify at his trial.

Court heard the boy was hospitalized twice due to malnutrition and taken into foster care before later being returned to his parents, who moved to Calgary in 2008. They refused to accept the boy had diabetes when he was initially diagnosed in British Columbia with the disease in 2000, the trial heard.

A fatality inquiry into the teen's death began last September and resumed in March so the judge could hear from further witnesses, including those from B.C. child welfare.

The purpose of the inquiry is to determine how to prevent similar deaths and does not make findings of legal responsibility.

An expert on medical care and the use of pharmacological remedies was the lone witness called to testify on Wednesday.

Dr. Ann Crabtree, a clinical associate professor in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary, said with a chronic disease such as diabetes there are no alternative medicines.

"There are no natural health products that are medically recognized to appropriately treat either infection or diabetes," said Crabtree.

She said when it comes to a younger patient, any change at all in the amount of insulin needs to be approved by a qualified physician.

"You wouldn't be prescribing a reduction in insulin without a medical assessment of some kind," asked Justice Sharon Van de Veen of the Alberta Court of Justice, previously called provincial court.

"Absolutely not," replied Crabtree.

"There would be changes in management of a dose of insulin given an ongoing assessment of a patient's blood sugar."

Van de Veen has interviewed school, medical and government officials from Alberta and British Columbia during the inquiry. She has said she wants to find a way in her final report to make sure the same sort of situation doesn't happen again.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 19, 2023.