Nurse afraid to tell couple baby would die, court told

A public health nurse was too afraid to tell a Christian couple their child would die if they did not take him to hospital, a jury in the High Court at Whangarei has been told.

David Tribble and his wife Catherine, from Pakotai, are charged with the manslaughter of their four-month son, Caleb, who died of blood poisoning on December 5, 2003.

The Tribbles have pleaded not guilty to that charge and also to another of failing to provide the necessaries for Caleb between November 26 and December 5, 2003, endangering his life.

Yesterday, during lengthy cross examination, the public health nurse who checked on Caleb the day he died said she did not tell the Tribbles their baby might die if they did not get him to hospital. She felt unsafe in the house and feared they might "head to the hills".

The nurse, who was granted name suppression, had been shocked by Caleb's condition when she visited about 10am on December 5. Caleb was "floppy" and his weight had dropped to a dangerous level.

A day earlier, Mrs Tribble had told her Caleb's condition had improved and he had been feeding regularly.

"I was treading very carefully here because I didn't know what was going on in the house," she said.

Mr Tribble's lawyer, Ron Mansfield, asked her if she had panicked.

"Who wouldn't panic in that situation? I felt unsafe – the whole situation was surreal.

"For God's sake this child was floppy," she said through tears.

"I put hints out there but I wasn't saying something like that to them.

"I didn't know whether they were going to head to the hills. . . the whole situation was abnormal."

Any parent would have recognised the baby needed to go to hospital, she said.

She did not feel she got the support she needed when she returned to the child health centre at Whangarei Hospital to inform them of the situation.

She had not contacted CYF or the police because, after speaking with pediatricians, it was considered there was sufficient time for her to go back out to the Tribbles to make an assessment.

But when she telephoned Mr Tribble at 1.40pm she was told Caleb had stopped breathing 45 minutes earlier.

"I was blown away," she said.

The Crown alleges the Tribbles failed in their lawful duty to get medical treatment for Caleb as he became increasingly sick in the days leading to his death.

However, the defence says Caleb's seven siblings were all ill with tummy bugs when Caleb was sick and they thought he had a bad case of flu. They would have taken him to a doctor if they had known he was so ill.

Article from www.stuff.co.nz