CALGARY — A medical expert says a starving diabetic teen would have had next to no immune response to fight off disease.
Dr. Michael Seear is testifying at the first-degree murder trial of the boy's parents about the impact of severe long-term malnutrition on a child's development.
Seear was the attending physician both times that Alexandru Radita was admitted to the B.C. Children's Hospital — initially in 2000 and again three years later.
Emil Radita, who is 59, and his 53-year-old wife Rodica have pleaded not guilty in the death of their 15-year-old son, who weighed less than 37 pounds when he died in Calgary in 2013.
Seear says severe malnutrition can affect cognitive reasoning, growth and the ability to fight illnesses.
Seear testified he has treated countless patients over the years, but the Radita case was "sufficiently unusual" that it stuck in his mind.
