Doctor sentenced to jail after nearly killing six-month old baby
The baby lost 1.6 kg.
Buzzfeed reports that the naturopath doctor, Marilyn Pauline Bodnar, 62, was sentenced on Thursday afternoon to 14 months in prison, with a non-parole period of seven months, for the role she played in the baby's starvation.
February 2015
In February 2015, Bodnar advised the mother to eat raw food only to heal her son's eczema saying the skin condition was caused by toxins in the mother's body.
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The baby was being exclusively breast fed at the time.
After starting on the diet on April 10, 2015, the mother and baby lost weight but Bodnar told her to keep going, saying the infant was fat and needed to lose weight.
In mid-May when the child started getting high temperatures, Bodnar told the mother to stop eating and take only water.
Later the mother realised that her baby was in real distress and needed real food. Bodnar advised her to feed him goat's milk but he ended up vomiting it all.
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Doctors intervene
Buzzfeed further reports that after six weeks of the diet, the mother took Tony to a GP and was referred to a children's hospital, where doctors believe he would have died within days if he had not received medical treatment.
He had gone from weighing 8 kilograms to 6.4 kilograms, was in a "shrunken state" and had lost body fat and muscles, and appeared dehydrated.
Bodnar pleaded guilty to the charge of aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring the mother in committing a criminal offence- which carries a maximum penalty of five years.
Earlier on Thursday, Bodnar’s lawyer had told the court she would never treat children again.
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The baby's mother was previously given a sentence of 14 months prison that was suspended due to her offer to testify against Bodnar.
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