The 1-year-10 month old child would have been alive today if proper care was given.
This was the submission by the prosecution lawyer, Susan Serukai in the case where a couple is charged with manslaughter arising from breach of their duties.
34‑year‑old Petero Taitusi and 29‑year‑old Loata Vitalina of Sawanikula, Dawasamu allegedly failed to ensure the safety of their 1-year-10 month old child which caused the child’s death.
Serukai told the assessors that from the 19th to 28th of February 2013, the parents failed to take the child to CWM Hospital or the nearest health centre which is Vunidawa Health Centre.
She says the question is whether they breached the duty to take the child to the hospital, and if this was the case, then it is negligence which is a crime.
Serukai told the assessors that the parents deprived the child from getting the treatment.
She says they did not ask for help but were more worried about asking for forgiveness.
Serukai told the court that Vitalina knew her child had a cough and was breathing fast but she asked for hookworm tablets.
She says the cause of death was lung infection.
Serukai told the assessors that the child was sickly due to breach of parental care.
Defence lawyer, Lisiate Qetaki who is representing Petero Taitusi told the assessors that even with proper care, death is inevitable.
Qetaki says the question is whether there was an omission of Taitusi’s duty.
He told the court that Taitusi had done his duty as a father and the child was not sick when they went to Sawanikula but got sick on the 28th of February, 2013.
Qetaki told the assessors that if the child was taken to Vunidawa Health Centre, it would have taken almost two hours and as it was highlighted in court that there are no equipment in the Vunidawa Health Centre, the child would have been referred to CWM Hospital which would taken another one and a half hours.
He says the child would not have made it.
Defence lawyer Thomson Lee who is representing Loata Vitalina told the assessors that as a caring mother, Vitalina took the child home on the 19th of February 2013 because he was hungry.
He says the staff nurse of Samabula Health Centre had detected that the child was seriously ill on the 12th of April, 2012.
Lee told the assessors that the nurse detected that the child had pneumonia in July 2012 but she did not refer the case to CWM Hospital and sent Vitalina and the child back home.
He told the court that if the nurse had explained what pneunmonia is and that it would kill the child, Vitalina would not have gone to Sawanikula.
High Court Judge Justice Vinsent Perera will sum up the case at 10am today before the assessors come back with their opinion.
