Woman imprisoned for catastrophic neglect that left son on ‘cusp of death’

A Winnipeg woman who ignored repeated pleas to seek medical attention for her eight-year-old son before he was finally seized by child-welfare authorities, emaciated and near death, has been sentenced to 5-½ years in prison.

“The neglect suffered by (the boy) has resulted in profound physical and developmental damage (and) left him at the time of his apprehension on the cusp of death,” said provincial court Judge Malcolm McDonald.

“Her failure to (protect her son) is an unforgivable moral and legal failure and a fundamental breach of trust.”

The 38-year-old woman and her 37-year-old husband, who are parents to five children, have each pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing bodily harm. The male offender is still awaiting sentencing in a separate proceeding.

Neither offender can be named to protect the identity of their son and his younger sister, both of whom were “malnourished and suffering serious medical consequences” when they were seized by CFS workers in March 2023.

“The two children had food aversions and the parents didn’t know how to deal with this, and did not seek assistance while (the boy) deteriorated and was in obvious need of medical attention,” Crown attorney Keri Anderson told court, reading from a lengthy agreed statement of facts.

“While (the girl’s) condition was less severe, she was on the same path as (her brother),” Anderson said.

Court heard neither child had seen a doctor since they were infants and had never been to the dentist.

A timeline laid out in the agreed statement of facts shows child-welfare workers were provided the first hints of the boy’s precarious health as early as November 2020, yet it was more than two years later, and after repeated failed efforts to persuade his mother to seek medical attention for the boy, before steps were taken to remove him from the home.

“Every single day she had an opportunity to take (her son) for help,” Anderson said. “Every single time CFS directed her to seek help, every single time family expressed concerns, every single time a professional at school reached out and offered help, and every day in between, she watched (her son) suffer and did nothing.”

None of the couple’s children attended school in 2021 or for the 2021-22 school year and there was no evidence they were being home-schooled.

In November 2020, a school social worker visited the couple’s home to assess the boy for registration the following school year. The social worker observed the boy walking with a limp.

The social worker and a school resource teacher visited the home again in May 2021 and reported the boy was “mobile and walking around outside, although he was unsteady on his feet. He was not running or jumping at the same physical level as peers his age and appeared to be smaller.”

In October 2021, as schools struggled to adapt to the pandemic, a school social worker visited the home again and found it “crowded with significant hoarding.”

The social worker said the boy “did not appear like a six- or seven-year-old should.”

The boy’s mother claimed he had hip dysplasia and that they couldn’t get to a doctor due to the pandemic. The woman said the boy was “very picky” and that it was “hard to get food into him.”

In March 2022, CFS opened a protection file with the family, citing several concerns, including lack of schooling, poor parenting and improper supervision.

The mother registered her three oldest children for school in September 2022, but it wasn’t until January 2023 that she agreed to register her eight-year-old son and five-year-old daughter.

School staff reported seeing the woman carrying the boy to school “as he was not walking and was unable to support himself.”

The woman claimed the boy, who was still wearing a diaper, stopped walking during the pandemic “and she did not know why.” The woman told school staff she had not taken the boy to a doctor because he did not have a birth certificate or health card.

The boy moved around school using a stroller or tricycle or by “bum scooting” on the floor. A school psychotherapist reported that the boy weighed approximately 25 pounds, “fatigued quickly and complained of being tired after crawling 15 feet.”

School staff expressed concern about the boy, who was seen to eat only one or two crackers or two bites of an apple. The boy’s mother and father said he was “a picky eater and does not eat a lot.”

School staff repeatedly encouraged the mother and father to seek medical help for the boy. “In response, (she) always brought up excuses, including not having a health card.”

School staff offered the woman assistance, “but (she) would not commit or would say she would go (to the doctor) the following week.”

School staff met with the boy’s parents on March 6, 2023, and “tried to press the urgency of the matter,” telling them the lack of a health card would not be an obstacle to medical treatment.

School staff agreed to write a letter the parents could take to a doctor explaining the situation. A plan was developed for the woman’s mother to care for the other four children while the boy’s parents took him to hospital.

A CFS social worker alerted to the plan and the boy’s condition said it would be considered medical neglect if he was not taken to a doctor.

When a social worker contacted the woman on March 20 to follow up, the woman said she had not taken the boy to a doctor, claiming her mother had been waylaid by a blizzard.

The social worker “did not believe there had been a blizzard” and later learned after speaking to the woman’s mother that there had been no plan for her to look after the children.

That day, a CFS supervisor and social worker went to the boy’s house and found him “balled up” on a mattress, “pale and extremely underweight, with his ribs and spine visible and knees bigger than his thighs.” The boy could only whisper and complained his “tummy hurt.”

The social worker described the boy as “looking close to death… skeletal” and “like he was from Auschwitz or a poor place in Africa.”

The supervisor and social worker left the house and reported what they saw to school staff. The supervisor and a different social worker returned to the house later that day to seize the boy.

The mother “became worked up and escalated and fell to the floor yelling: ‘I just wanted to do the dishes.’”

The mother and a social worker accompanied the boy as he was taken by ambulance to hospital. The social worker described the boy as “something she had not seen in her 29-year career in child protection.”

“He appeared broken,” the social worker said.

The boy’s father arrived home after he had been taken to hospital and was “yelling and irate” with a CFS supervisor, saying: “It’s not like he was going to die today.” He provided no explanation for the boy’s condition.

Child-welfare authorities seized the boy’s four siblings the following day. The boy and his younger sister spent months in hospital being treated for chronic malnutrition and related ailments. A medical summary included in the agreed statement of facts suggests both children may suffer long-term cognitive impairment.

Court heard the boy and his younger sister will likely have to use feeding tubes for the rest of their lives.

Defence lawyer Jeremy Kostiuk alleged the woman’s “pitiable” attempts to hide her son’s deteriorating health was in response to being psychologically abused by her husband.

“He still occupies a troubling amount of real estate in (her) head,” Kostiuk said.

“His narrative is that this is all her fault,” he said. “He went out to work every morning, the rest was up to her.”

McDonald rejected the allegation. “It is clear that both of them chose not to (seek medical help for the boy) so as to avoid the consequences of their neglect,” he said.

The boy and his younger sister have made many positive strides since they were seized by CFS, but face futures cluttered with a long line of medical appointments and surgeries, their foster father said in a victim impact statement provided to court.

“One of the most difficult parts of this for me is knowing that (they) would have had a normal chance at life had they been provided proper circumstances to thrive,” the man said. “I am still hopeful for these children, but the mountain in front of them now is enormous.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca