A baby of Truehope believers died of meningitis likely because they chose to use alternative remedies instead of actual medicine to treat their son. No one can say, of course, whether the baby would have lived with proper care, but what we can say is that without it, he died.
The parents of the baby are David and Collet Stephan – David being the son of Tony Stephan, one of the founders of Truehope.
The Stephans: Truehope, Alternative Medicine Believers
Some of you may recall that I’m not a fan of Truehope. Not only do I not think their supplement, EMPowerplus, works, in the least, for bipolar disorder but these delightful folks threatened to sue me for my opinions on the matter. Additionally, I consider Truehope and EMPowerplus to be very dangerous to people with mental illness as they insist that those who take their supplement get off of all actual medication. This is ridiculous and any doctor would tell you that if their supplement were to work, it would work in conjunction with medication and not just alone. They have a massive motivation to get people off of Western Medicine treatments – you know, actual medicine. Apparently, as seen above, they are prepared to do this, to the death.
No Medical Care for their Child with Meningitis
Unfortunately, this couple chose to give their 19-month-old child water with maple syrup, among other ridiculous things, instead of actually taking him to the doctor. This, in spite of the fact that they were told by a nurse that their child likely had meningitis. In response to this information, they took their child to a naturopath and only called for real medicine (an ambulance) once their son stopped breathing. And yes, if you’re curious, these people do have two other children.
Members of the family are rallying around the couple saying that they did nothing wrong and they say they’re being persecuted due to their beliefs. (Perhaps they’ve forgotten about the dead child. Beliefs that lead to the death of a child are sort of worth persecuting and prosecuting.)
Stephans Charged with Failing to Provide the Necessities for Life
I am pleased to see this story making the rounds because these parents are being charged with failing to provide the necessities of life. Now, I’m not privy to all the evidence the crown has against these people but I can tell you this: they wouldn’t be prosecuting without some. David and Collet Stephan face up to five years in jail if found guilty.
Now, these people are innocent until proven guilty; but if they are found guilty, I sure hope they throw the book at them. This type of behavior is not acceptable. People can believe whatever they want and if they want to treat themselves with ginger root instead of real medicine, that is their right. People, however, do not have the right to do this to a child, resulting in harm or death. Period.
Read the full story at: Alberta toddler died from meningitis because he was taken to a naturopath instead of a doctor, Crown says.
Quick update: Quick note to anyone who thinks “glee” is any part of this: you’re wrong. I feel no sure thing. What I feel is outrage that this happened in the first place and great fear for the other two children left. Oh, and am I judgmental of people who treat serious illness with watered-down maple syrup? Yes I am. And I’m okay with that. And, by the way, I’m not the only people that don’t buy this couple’s “perspectives.” Read the comments here.
Update #2: As the court case is now in deliberations, much more detail is available on what happened. Read a major article including audio of the testimony here and read this informative breakdown of events, here.
Update #3: Couple found guilty of failing to provide the necessities of life.
Image by Avsar Aras (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons.
Last i heard david Stephan prevailed in court after a 7 or 8 year battle.
David stephan was found NOT GUILTY of his childs death.
Hi Natasha; A couple corrections to your post above… It’s worse than what you presented. The press in Alberta doesn’t want to mess with Truehope, and neither did the prosecutors in this trial, so a lot of stuff got buried or mis-reported.
1) The news stories suggetsed the parents relied on homebrew remedies to treat Ezekiel; “maple syrup, among other ridiculous things.” But Collet and David’s statements to the police indicate the central element in their ‘treatment’ was a Truehope product, OLE (Olive Leaf Extract), which got rendered all lower-case in the coverage and court documents, like it was something you could buy at the grocers. No major news outlet has identified this correctly yet.
2) The parents didn’t take Ezekiel to a naturopath. On the day he later stopped breathing, the Stephans had to drive into Lethbridge to see their lawyer and sign some papers. They put Ezekiel in the back of the car. AFTER the legal meeting they dropped by Lethbridge Naturopathic (it was on the way) where Collet popped in and purchased a bottle of the echinacea formula ‘Blast’ from the clinic receptionist. She didn’t tell anyone at the clinic that her son was outside in the car, much less bring him in for a look see.
3) David isn’t just the son of Tony Stephan. He’s currently Vice President, Director of Marketing for Truehope. He met Collet when they were both working as sales representatives for the company. I don’t know what their specific job duties were, but if they weren’t among the people on the phones telling their customers to stop taking their psych meds, and up-selling them into as much EMPowerPlus and all those other Truehope products they supoosedly needed to make the EMP+ work, they were part of that ‘team’. That’s what they did at work every day. That’s how they made their living (and a cushy one at that).
And here’s two tidbits about David.
A) With his son lying brain-dead in the ICU. he was hyping a Truehope product in his interview with the police:
“I mean there’s hundreds of remedies that you can use, and we’ve just chosen to use a few, a few of the most powerful and most well-recognized ones uh and that’s Olive Leaf Extract …uh …and the garlic. Which are very well-recognized for, for being anti-fungal, anti-viral, all that stuff.”
B) The news accounts reported that when Collet discovered Ezekiel had stopped breathing, David called 911. What they did not report, but was revealed in the Courts findings-of-fact, was that after Collet alerted David, he called Tony Stephan first, and only dialed 911 after he finished speaking with his father.
Your “facts” are not in fact factual. The press reported lies that in court were proved untrue. Before spreading slanderous lies, you might want to do some actual research which should include a pesky thing called evidence. A court found them innocent of ALL charges in spite of the fact that [moderated] tried to crucify them in the public eye. Shameful behaviour on your part. Really shameful.
Moderator: No name-calling, please.
Hi Lora,
That’s not exactly what happened.
This is what happened:
* In June, 2016, a jury found the Stephans guilty of failing to provide the necessaries of life for their son (leading to his death).
* In November, 2017 the Alberta Court of Appeal upheld the conviction.
* After that, the Supreme Court of Canada overturned the verdict, declaring that the original trial judge did not provide the jury with the tools necessary to make a decision given the large amount of medical evidence offered during the trial.
* In 2019, there was a second trial in which the Stephans were acquitted.
* In March 2021, the Alberta Appeal Court ordered a third trial against the Stephans, setting aside the not guilty verdicts, ruling that the judge’s comments about Adeagbo showed a bias, and that Clackson had erred requiring the Crown to prove that medical intervention would have saved Ezekiel’s life.
* In June 2021, crown prosecutors stayed the charges against the Stephans determining that the evidence did not meet standards for prosecution since it had been 9 years since Ezekiel’s death and that the available evidence had deteriorated, making a reasonable likelihood of conviction unlikely.
In other words, they were convicted, acquitted, had the acquittal nullified, and then ordered to stand trial again. That is decidedly NOT being found “innocent on all charges.”
The trials are outlined here (and all the facts are in news articles): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Stephan#cite_note-Globaltrial3-23
— Natasha Tracy
Viral Meningitis is a very rare disease, and death can often come quickly, within 48 hrs, even if massive doses of antibiotics are made right away.
A massive witch hunt has clearly ensued over this child’s unfortunate death, and a lot of ignorant people have sharpened their long knives in a disgusting zeal to attack Tony Stephan and his family, using this tragedy in an effort to tar and feather all alternative approaches to medical treatment. Get off these people’s backs. They have suffered plenty and should not be blamed for this. If they are imprisoned it would be a gross injustice- part of a much larger witch hunt, and to call this “karma” is an insult to anyone who has ever been helped by any suppressed alternative treatment mode as I and millions of other people have been.
Papers all over the world, many of which receive pharmaceutical advertising are clearly engaging in a witch hunt over this sad death and this couple’s tragedy, and its wrong. I know the Stephan family, and I applaud their courage, especially in the face of the sort of gutlessness displayed by those who attack them making no effort to get in their shoes.
Tony Stephan is a very good man and so are his children. They have the courage of their convictions, and I applaud their efforts to oppose Big Pharma as a person whose life was saved over 30 years ago via orthomolecular medicine after mainstream psychiatry almost killed me.
Meningitis kills a lot of people, even those who have received massive doses of antibiotics. Its a very rare disease and there is zero guarantee this kid would have lived even if he had been put on massive doses of antibiotics immediately and vaccines really do cause a huge amount of harm.
Louis Pasteur, the originator of the Germ Theory of disease capitulated to his biggest critic, Antoine Beauchamp on his death bed when he finally realized the truth and said “Ah! Its NOT the GERM, its the TERRAIN!” Get off these people’s backs and educate yourselves by watching the excellent documentary VAXXED! I don’t have any kids, but if I did, and the State Terrorists ever attempted to FORCE me to have them vaccinated, I’d shoot to kill!
HI Tracey,
It was such a relief to find your website and I do recommend it to others as well. I think it would have been better to not post this article. It does come across as bitter in my opinion. I do agree with your assessment of things but when I come to your site I want to see issues about bipolar and not the crazies who try to treat it without real medicine.
Hi all,
Anyone who’s following this thread may like to revisit the original article for update #2 which I just posted. It contains links to the court case testimony and an events breakdown.
– Natasha Tracy
It does raise the, perhaps trite question:
How many people have to die?
These people have two more children.
Is the family going to be some terrifyingly morbid experiment?
For me, the question isn’t about guilt or innocence, it’s about the fact that people rally around obviously negligent parents arguing that they didn’t make an unreasonable decision. Does that mean they are going to go the maple syrup route when their own children have a life threatening illness? How many of them are mentally doubling-down on insanity?
It’s a frustrating thing to spend so much time and energy trying to sort out what is real and reasonable, only to see these people treat such principles like a thought-river for the toxic waste of their thoughtlessness.
Ah, so I see that I struck a nerve somewhere amongst the followers…
by the way… i’ve been following Natasha’s blog since it’s infancy days.. oh so F**## many utter years ago
I doubt THIS will make it to the forum…but here it goes
I woke one early early morning, opened my computer laptop, started it up and went to this blog… to find this:
“Baby of Truehope Believers Dies, Likely Due to Lack of Medical Care”
Natasha doesn’t believe in TrueHope… pretty frigging clear and perhaps rightfully so (btw, I don’t neither).
TrueHope supposedly threatened to sue…. refer to previous blog posts about that subject.
A baby tragically dies… oh, it’s an offspring of a supposed founder of… and wa la, it makes a blog post.
Further, for what point or purpose did THIS baby boy’s tragic death lead to a whole blog post from Natasha? To maybe, I don’t know… further a point regarding… oh let’s see… ah yes… TrueHope.
Now… if we don’t want to look at it as personal…. and it’s what followers here so insist it is… outrage that a baby died due to supposed lack of medical care….
then let us see MORE blogs about… you know, about the 100,000’s of children who die each year… because the parents are poor… because the children are abused…. because someone’s beliefs oppose… etc.
then we’d have outrage expressed that a baby tragically passed…
better yet… perhaps removing all reference to TrueHope and just a mention of a tragic child’s death… would’ve perhaps been a better choice IMHO….
Her Blog… her choice.
Always… her choice.
After reading Autumn Stringam’s autobiography “A Promise of Hope”, I tried Truehope for my postpartum bipolar disorder (also known as bipolar, peripartum onset) for four months. It was a waste of money. Once I found the right combination of medications for me, lithium and the monoamine oxidase inhibitor Parnate, my treatment-resistant bipolar depression lifted and I got my life back.
As a mother of two young children, I find the loss of an 18 month-old baby heartbreaking.
That aside, while reading the previous comments, I was astounded at how rude and bizarre some of them are.
If you’re going to comment, do it with respect and class and add something helpful to the discussion, no matter how opposed you are to the blogger’s point of view. Otherwise just say no to your keyboard!
I admire Natasha for various reasons; one of them is because she didn’t delete the comments here that I found highly offensive and/or ignorant. It takes guts to speak your mind and not censor, and Natsha has guts and intelligence in spades.
What these people did, for whatever reason, is criminal. No question about it. I don’t hear glee, I hear outrage and appropriately so.
Thank you Natasha for giving this child a voice and for all you do for those of us that have to deal with this monster, bipolar.
What’s wrong with some of you? You’re seeing shadenfreude where there is none. It’s a tragedy that child died. This is also unrelated to Natasha’s post about feeling stuck on the issue of having kids. Why bring that or any other past posts into this discussion? That’s just rude to Natasha. This one obviously stands alone, and any glee is clearly absent imho. I’m not naming names this time, but some of you might be better served spending time doing something more useful than trolling the best bipolar resource I’ve found online.
I don’t believe what truehope believers do. I do believe that judgement of anyone’s beliefs is wrong. If these people want to live without modern medicine, that is their choice. In my opinion though, they do not have the right to deprive their children healthcare. If their children grow up and adopt this lifestyle, fine. They need to choose for themselves. As a minor, each child should get the best healthcare possible by people who have been educated in health care. They spend many years in school learning everything they can to help the sick.
Natasha, in my opinion has only expressed her opinion on the sad death of this child and I read this blog because I choose to. Thank you Natasha of making us aware of this tradgety.
To “Tabby” – I see no “salivating” in this post. I see someone pointing out that a child was refused medical care and died, unnecessarily. Really, anyone who would imagine that maple syrup would cure a potentially-lethal infection is – how to put it kindly – deluded.
The current trend toward slamming science in general is alarming at best and dangerous at worst. This child might well be alive and healthy if the parents had simply taken him to the ER. We know medicine works for most cases. Not all, but most. And THAT is the point of this blog entry. The child deserved the best medical care his parents could manage, and he did not receive it. It would have been more appropriate to let him grow up and make his own decisions about whether science is right for him.
If you had been following Natasha for any length of time you would know she is constantly tweaking her meds when her psychiatrist recommends it. That was uncalled for.
Second, the fact that this cases is getting national attention is good…because it will draw attention to all the other kids this happens to whose parents never get charged and should be. I’m all for letting people have their own beliefs, and am a big supporter of more natural means of treating common illnesses, but not when they cause death to innocent children.
Third, she didn’t sound gleeful, she sounded pissed as hell. As we should all be over the senseless, painful death of an innocent child. She is mad that people discounting science can be deadly. She is mad that they are not only targeting unstable adults, but young defensless children as well. If she wasn’t furious about this I would wonder about her humanity
She is tweaking meds and they never work yet she shills them HARD, constantly telling others they need to be on meds and how they work (just not for her, I guess).
This article is weird. I do sense some “I told you so” too., Even gleeful at parts. And personal….. Let’s wait till the case is concluded and make judgments. So far it looks like the parents acted on their best belief… although it proved fatal. Certainly not case of murder, ffs. Didn’t they have bad experience with doctors? I believe I read this somewhere.
I have to say I agree and am a bit disappointed to see this. It is not our place to judge others without knowledge, I thought THAT was what you advocated for. You don’t know these people or their struggles, and this is not your area of expertise.
Nothing feels worse than being publicly shamed about something other people know nothing about. That’s how stigma starts in the first place.
Really disappointed.
It’s 3:36am where I am (States) and I cannot sleep. Work, life in general, my father dying of Cancer… eh
So, I get on the computer and pull up your blog and wa la… so, yes… this aging middle-aged woman with a lifetime battle and struggle with the crap in her head, is taking you a bit to task…
Your blog… I get it and well, you’ve gone down rough paths before.. in your blogs. I realize that in attacking this entity and they, retaliating by threatening to sue you has gotten you fairly riled…
but
you appear to be salivating at the news that an innocent baby died… and in doing so, you appear to be swaggering with “see, I told ya”
now I get moods can do a lot to folks and not everyone makes good decisions when in certain mood episodes but Natasha… you may need to tweak a pharma med somewhere
The parents are innocent until proven guilty of medical neglect or care. They haven’t been convicted or imprisoned as of yet.
I gotta feeling that had this baby not been related to members of TrueHope…. the baby likely wouldn’t have made enough interest to blog/glee over.
You are better than this… I hope. You haven’t the details, you admitted
and by the way… stop using Bipolar as an excuse for choices or lack thereof in your life.
Just cause you have Bipolar doesn’t exclude you from life sug. You have to be living to have Bipolar but if you use the Bipolar as the scapegoat for why you choose not to do this and that or to choose this and that… then you are no more than those who choose Bipolar as the excuse for every literal thing negative and derogatory… easy crutch to pull out and lean on, huh?
So, you want a child or you do not want a child… it’s your choice truly in the end. Stop blaming lack of direction on your Disorder. The D**$ meds you swear on and by, is supposed to help ya, right? If you feel that Bipolar is limiting your life and your life’s choices… then the D**$ meds you swear to… need tweaking.
Projecting much, Hon?
Tabby, you should get off your high horse and get back into reality.
I think you’re reading into it too much and ascribing negative attitudes where there are different ones trying to be conveyed.
If you read the original NP article, you would see that Natasha just added her own experience and two cents in- and uses the same facts/evidence that’s publically available. Why wouldn’t she add her own experience with TrueHope? It’s what makes it personal, it’s what makes Natasha angry enough to write a post about it to create awareness on not just the stigma of mental illness, but health care issues we will all face at one time or another. Natasha never injected her opinions as facts or presented falsified information.
“I gotta feeling that had this baby not been related to members of TrueHope…. the baby likely wouldn’t have made enough interest to blog/glee over.”
I read the opposite. I think the reason she made this post was not to “glee” or say “I told you so” but the need to convey the seriousness and real life dangers of using holistic medicine in place of allopathic medicine. Bipolars hear it all the time, are told by peers, partners, parents that allopathic medicine won’t help and should instead use “natural” ways to “deal with it”. If you’ve never had that experience I envy you.
“So, you want a child or you do not want a child… it’s your choice truly in the end. Stop blaming lack of direction on your Disorder. The D**$ meds you swear on and by, is supposed to help ya, right? If you feel that Bipolar is limiting your life and your life’s choices… then the D**$ meds you swear to… need tweaking.”
Wut? Hon, get your mind right before you make a post and make sure it has relevancy to the OP. Making things up in your mind and convincing yourself of something doesn’t make it real.
So now we are comparing acute infection problem and bipolar, unmeasurable mood disorder? Wow. Shilling psychmeds over body of dead child that died of completely different problem.Wow, just, wow.
Past few posts of Natasha, including that one that disses religion and spirituality, sound bitter and plain mean.
VenusH,
I have no idea what you mean. There is no religion mentioned here not in the last one.
– Natasha Tracy
I am referring to bitterfest “prayer doesn’t cure mental illness” when you said prayer is “talking to the sky” and “god made you ill”.
Different topics, same bitter, bitter and negative tone.
They were found innocent of ALL charges. Meningitis was a theory that was proved untrue. I am unsettled that people pay you for advice Natasha, I hope the advice you give them is more based in reality than some of your gleeful accusatory words against the couple in this article who experienced a heartbreaking loss. I think you need some lessons in accountability and compassion.
Hi Lora,
As I responded in another comment:
This is what happened:
* In June, 2016, a jury found the Stephans guilty of failing to provide the necessaries of life for their son (leading to his death).
* In November, 2017 the Alberta Court of Appeal upheld the conviction.
* After that, the Supreme Court of Canada overturned the verdict, declaring that the original trial judge did not provide the jury with the tools necessary to make a decision given the large amount of medical evidence offered during the trial.
* In 2019, there was a second trial in which the Stephans were acquitted.
* In March 2021, the Alberta Appeal Court ordered a third trial against the Stephans, setting aside the not guilty verdicts, ruling that the judge’s comments about Adeagbo showed a bias, and that Clackson had erred requiring the Crown to prove that medical intervention would have saved Ezekiel’s life.
* In June 2021, crown prosecutors stayed the charges against the Stephans determining that the evidence did not meet standards for prosecution since it had been 9 years since Ezekiel’s death and that the available evidence had deteriorated, making a reasonable likelihood of conviction unlikely.
In other words, they were convicted, acquitted, had the acquittal nullified, and then ordered to stand trial again. That is decidedly NOT being found “innocent on all charges.”
The trials are outlined here (and all the facts are in news articles): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Stephan#cite_note-Globaltrial3-23
— Natasha Tracy
The comparison is that the people of TrueHope push holistic medicine over allopathic medicine to detriment of life. This has potential effects across health care, from physical to mental illnesses.
VenusH if you don’t like Natasha’s blog, nobody is forcing you to read it. You are doing so at your own will.
What are you trying to accomplish by constantly exposing yourself to what you find offensive and making comments about how you’re so offended? Who are you shilling for?
I am not shilling for anything. You see me selling something?
And I am not of that opinion one should read and do only what they enjoy. That is just pampering your already made up opinion. And one has right to criticize. Nobody is all that.
They are not just believers….the child’s paternal grandfather is the founder of Truehope!!!
In a very tragic way this is karma…
He started the company to help his children who inherited mental illness from their mother who committed suicide after a severe battle with depression. Her father had also committed suicide. There was precious little help from the medical establishment, so the father started researching looking for an answer to help his children who were battling depression inherited from their mother and grandfather. Your ignorance and lack of compassion is appalling. Natasha seems to enjoy denigrating and slandering this couple who experienced an utterly heartbreaking loss. Shame on you Gina and shame on Natasha for her lack of professionalism, compassion and any common sense.