Rodica Radita didn’t want to accept that her son had Type-1 diabetes. She and her husband’s refusal to treat their son’s illness resulted in numerous hospitalizations over 12 years, until their son Alex died at 15-years-old in 2013 – weighing just 37 pounds.
Now, the Raditas have been charged with first-degree murder in connection to their son’s death.
After his initial diagnosis, Alex Radita went for years without seeing a doctor. The lack of care ultimately sent him to the emergency room on numerous occasions, one time when he was near death.
According to the CBC, “Rodica told medical staff she did not agree with the diabetes diagnosis and did not want to give Alex insulin. At one point, she said she believed the insulin was giving Alex cold sores and resisted increasing the amount he was getting.”
From the CBC:
In December 2000, Alex was hospitalized for the first time. The hospital initially refused to discharge Alex because his parents were in denial about his medical condition. The family was trained on how to treat his diabetes and Alex was returned to them.
Three months later, in March 2001, Alex was again admitted to hospital under the threat that he would be removed from his family’s home after doctors suspected his parents were faking his blood sugar readings.
Although a religious connection hasn’t yet been determined, the following pages of bible verses were discovered at the Radita home and admitted into evidence:
Rodica and Emil were supposed to test him four times each day and report those findings once a week to the hospital.
The Raditas were trained further and Alex was returned under the supervision of a doctor.
For six more months, the family saw the doctor until he moved his office.
Alex then went without medical care for an entire 3 years until he was sent to the hospital in “grave condition” in 2003.
Doctors found Alex in terrible shape: his teeth were rotten, his stomach distended, he was malnourished and nearly unconscious.
His blood sugar was undetectable. Rodica Radita told medical staff her son had only been sick for two days.
At that time, the boy was considered “severely underweight” for a five-year-old and weighed 39 pounds, just two pounds heavier than when he died at the age of 15.
Alex remained in hospital for 2½ months and once he was healthy, he was seized by B.C. child and family services for about a year.
Despite the objections of child and family services officials, Alex was returned to his parents in 2005. Until 2008, Alex’s diabetes was stabilized and his file was closed.
When the family failed to show up for an appointment in July of 2008, an investigation was launched. It was later discovered the Roditas moved to Alberta.
“No action was taken and there was never any interaction between B.C. and Alberta child and family services,” said prosecutor Susan Pepper.
On May 7, 2013, Police were called to the Radita home where Alex was found in “medical distress.” He was pronounced dead later that day. According to the autopsy report, the cause of death was bacterial sepsis (Staphyloccus Aureus) due to complications from neglect of his diabetes and starvation.
Watch a report on the story from Global News below:
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