A court in Dendermonde (East Flanders) has sentenced the parents of a 13-year-old boy to eight months in prison after they refused to allow their son to take a PCR test for coronavirus. The test was necessary to allow an emergency operation to go ahead. As a result of the delay the teen lost a testicle.
The boy’s mother was the only defendant to appear in court. She received a suspended sentence. The boy’s father is now abroad together with his children.
The jail sentence as well as an 800-euro fine were meted out for failing to provide appropriate care and endangering their son’s health.
Following a diagnosis an emergency operation was needed within two to four hours in order to save the boy’s testicles. The boy had been taken to A&E in Sint-Niklaas, but when the father heard a PCR corona test was needed, he decided to return home with the lad complaining about the hospital’s “money grabbing methods”.
The mother tried to allow the operation to proceed in Ghent using an alternative test, but here too a PCR test was required.
That evening police officers escorted the boy to hospital in Dendermonde. The lad underwent an operation but one testicle had already been lost. The remaining testicle was only just saved.