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The condition of a 4-year-old Pace boy is the direct result of his brain disorder, not a case of felony neglect, say supporters of the boy’s mother.
“I can’t believe Florida courts would decide to allow Terry Schiavo to be starved and on the other hand, to prosecute a mother because her child has normal symptoms of the end-stage of a terminal disease,” Dianne Fitzgerald, founder of the National Lissencephaly Network, said Thursday.
Erin Brittany Markes, the boy’s 19-year-old mother, was jailed on $100,000 bond Friday on allegations that she withheld medical treatment from her son. Santa Rosa County Circuit Judge Ron Swanson ordered her release on Wednesday. She left under electronic monitoring that restricts her travel to within Santa Rosa and Escambia counties.
Markes’ son reportedly suffers from Miller-Dieker syndrome, a form of the rare genetic brain disorder lissencephaly, characterized by a smoothing of folds in the brain.
Authorities say the boy weighed only 10 pounds when he was hospitalized and had not received his seizure medication. His body temperature was 91.1 degrees and he suffered from bedsores.
Fitzgerald’s organization has referred Markes to Bill McHenry, an attorney at the Michigan-based law firm of Fieger, Fieger, Kenney, Johnson & Giroux P.C. The charity also is considering forming a legal defense fund for Markes.
The firm’s Geoffrey Fieger is the attorney who represented Dr. Jack Kevorkian in his doctor-assisted suicide trial.......................
Group: Brain disorder caused boyÂ’s condition
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