Editor’s Note: A prior version of the story incorrectly stated that Dr. Li had put the child on a restricted diet at the parents’ request. We apologize for the error.
Before they were ordered to stand trial, the parents of a six-year-old boy who was so malnourished he nearly died, were described as caring, nurturing and struggling.
"These are fit parents," their public defender, Keir Bradford-Grey, told NBC10's Lu Ann Cahn.
Victor and Oliafa Ramos may have been misinformed, Grey said, but they were trying to care for their sick child.
The little boy was so depleted when he arrived at the hospital, he couldn't walk, according to court documents. He weighed 29 pounds, his stomach was distended, his skin was cracking. Doctors said his case was one of the worst they'd seen and compared it to starving children in third world countries.
The Ramos couple was in court today, so a judge could decide if they should be tried on charges of endangering their child, conspiracy, aggravated assault and simple assault.
Victor and Oliafa remained silent in court while Dr. Weiguo Li described their child as the sickest he's ever seen in his career. Dr. Li testified that the parents had put their child on a gluten-free, meat-free, protein-free diet because they believed it would help their sick child. He also told the Magistrate Judge that he offered the Ramos' $20 for gas to get their child immediately to The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, but that didn't happen.
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Bradford-Grey vigorously defended the couple, saying they had taken their child to numerous doctors, including an alternative care doctor and that they believed a restrictive diet would help him get better. He'd been hospitalized several times and each time returned to his parents. But the prosecutor's affidavit says his condition was reported to the Office of Children and Youth in Montgomery County by The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and that his condition was due to medical neglect.
"What is see is a child who is severely malnourished, and in very poor physical condition, such that he almost died, and that was at the hands of, the conduct or lack thereof, of his parents," said Montgomery County assistant district attorney, Samantha Cauffman.
Bradford-Grey says the little boy was recently improving in his parents' care until they were arrested last week and restricted from seeing him.
"I believe that they are seriously concerned about their child's illnesses, they were getting information from different places about what was wrong with their child, they were misdiagnosing the child, early on...this family's gone through a lot."
The judge set a trial date of August 15. Victor and Oliafa Ramos remain free on bail and their little boy remains in the care of another family member.
